


This is Neptune

by Demonqueen82



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:30:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5399495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demonqueen82/pseuds/Demonqueen82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All recognizable dialogue/situations belongs to the creators everything else is mine :)</p></blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summer Before Senior Year**

After the night from hell, she is laying in her bed when there is a knock at the door.

She gets up, her body already feeling stiff to answer it.

"I was hoping it would be you." she says opening the door. "Logan?"

He faces her, revealing that he is very bloodied and battered. He collapses into her arms.

She gets him inside and he tells her that Weevil and the rest of the PCHers caught him, alone, on the bridge.

'What were you doing on the bridge?" she asks softly.

"You had dumped me and accused me of killing Lilly. I was drunk off my ass and not really thinking. I knocked Weevil out with a kick to the face and next thing I know, his cohort, Felix and company pull me onto the road. To beat me to the mess in your lap."

"You're lucky to be alive."

"Not so sure about that. I must have passed out or something because next thing I know I am laying on the ground, holding a bloody knife. Felix dead beside me."

She just looks at him in shock.

"I didn't stab him."

"I..I believe you."  _I want to believe you._

"I threw the knife into the water and got in my car and drove."

"Logan..."

"I know. It's all over the radio. My dad killed Lilly." tears to fall down his face.

There is another knock on the door.

She gets up slowly to answer it.

This time its Leo.

He tells her that he's looking for Logan and saw his car outside. He says it will be easier if she lets him in.

Upset, she open the door to reveal Logan on the couch.

Leo walks in and reads Logan his rights.

* * *

To make her dad happy she starts working at The java Hut.

"Veronica, you have a customer. He asked to sit in your section."

She sees that its Duncan.

"Hi." she says awkwardly. "Haven't seen you around much."

"Yeah, just got back from Napa, helping Celeste open up the house. She and dad are moving there. I am going to be staying here, at the Neptune Grand. Don't want to do Senior year at a new school.

"Veronica, your boyfriend is here." the manager says coming over to her.

She turns around and sees Logan.

Logan and Duncan barely acknowledge each other.

She and Logan kiss in greeting.

* * *

Logan is coming out of the courtroom, being bombarded by the press. There are crowds of people there with signs, protesting.

He gets into the limo where she is waiting. She takes his hand in hers.

_The motorist that probably saved Logan's life by calling 911, disappeared before they got there. The cops never found the knife._

Logan's high-priced lawyers crushed the bikers.

** Weren't the bikers there to kill Logan? Didn't he have the bruises and broken ribs to prove it? If Logan did stab Felix, wasn't it self-defense? **

The DA decided there wasn't enough evidence and Logan was released six weeks after he was arrested.

* * *

They are making out in Logan's truck.

"My dad is probably watching us through a telescope." she mutters when they break to take a breath.

"He's probably impressed with your virtue." Logan says trying to pull her back into his arms.

"...And that telescope is mounted on a rifle." she jokes.

"Five more minutes." he mouths out the window.

"You should feel lucky. I mean, you could be out here with some pretty boy jerk just lookin' to get laid." he says kissing her.

"Wait. What are you saying, you're not pretty?" she smiles against his mouth.

"What I'm trying to say is, I'm in love with you." Logan says seriously.

"The things guys'll say to get past second base..." she says pushing him to lie down on the seat.

She thinks nothing of the motorcycle noise, until a shot is fired and Logan's window shatters.

* * *

She came to school to visit him at lunch, since he had to take summer classes since he missed a majority of his finals thanks to his and his father's arrests.

They walk toward the parking lot.

Dick and Beaver get out of Dick's car. Dick goes out of his way to be friendly to Veronica. They open the car trunk and pull out several gasoline cans.

"We're all set. Everyone agreed to meet up at the Sac 'n' Pac." Dick says.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"We are going to burn 'Pan Sucks' on their football field." Logan tells her.

The next morning, her dad is the one that tells her that somehow the community pool somehow caught on fire during the night. Its going to be closed for the rest of the summer.

* * *

She takes a deep breath and takes Logan's hands in hers.

"I can't do this anymore. I can't be with you when you are acting like this. Things between 09ers and non-09ers are getting worse. I'm scared that someone is going to end up dead."

"Someone already died. Everyone thinks that I did it. My friends have my back, why don't you?"

"I think you are enjoying this..."

Logan gets up from the couch and smashes a lamp.

"My mother is dead, my girlfriend is dead, my father is a murderer, and the only person left that I care about is dumping me." he yells at her.

Her dad rushes into the room and holds Logan in a lock up against a wall.

He tells him not to talk to her like that and to never come back.

* * *

**Senior Year**

_Normal. That's the watchword. Sounds good, doesn't it? Senior year begins tomorrow and all appears hunky dory. Best friend? Check. Lilly's killer behind bars? Check. Regualar job? Check._

"Kelvin Moore." she says with a smile.

"I just got kicked out of athletics for my entire senior year. I failed the mandatory drug test." Kelvin tells her.

"So what's new, Kelvin? You failed it last year, too, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, but I'm clean now, for goin' on ten months." he states.

"I promised my dad. I don't do that kind of work anymore."

"So who's supposed to help me out, then?"

She shakes her head and turns to go back to work.

"I guess it's true what they say about you then, huh?" Kelvin calls after her.

"Probably, but you're gonna have to narrow it down for me." she says facing him.

"That last year was just some act. You got to pick sides these day..."

"Time for you to go." Cervando says coming up to them.

"I'm leaving. You know, its funny every 09er passed there drug test." Kelvin says.

Cervando doesn't say a word to her, just goes back to work.

_I don't care. He's a bully that karma finally caught up with._

"Veronica. Your dad is on TV." the manager says getting her attention.

Her dad is being interviewed by Julie Chen about the book he co-authored about Lilly's murder investigation, called  _Big Murder, Small Town_.

"Your dad's hot." the manager remarks.

Shaking her head she takes the remote and turns the TV off.

* * *

"Hey you." she says coming up to Wallace.

"You didn't call me back last night." he states.

"Sorry, did a shift at the hut and ran to the office to work on filing by the time I got home I was ready to crash. What's up?" she says as they walk.

"I failed my drug test. I'm booted from athletics for the whole year."

"You don't do drugs." she says stopping.

"No duh, Sherlock. And it wasn't just me. Five of us total failed — and Jimmy Day, our starting quarterback, he passed it. And everybody saw him blazin' one up down on the boardwalk."

"Crap. I heard that every 09er passed." she says.

"That's where you are wrong."

"Huh?"

"One 09er did fail."

"Who?"

"Meg. So you'll help?"

"Do you even have to ask? Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in..." she mutters.

* * *

Wallace explains the drug test procedure to her.

"You do your business in a cup and hand it to the person administering the test. They seal it with a piece of tape and make you sign the tape. Then they send it to a lab to be tested. If the seal is broken, they're supposed to reject it."

"Okay so that means that no one can do a switch there." she thinks for a moment. "Hey, what period do you have office aide this year?"

"Believe it or not, I didn't sign up for a second year of office aide."

"Yeah, that doesn't work for me." she says sitting down.

"Well, you can take that up with Moms. She had these crazy ideas about me havin' a well-rounded education. But, don't underestimate me. The master key. Yeah. And I got all the administrative passwords I could get my hands on."

She smiles as he hands them to her. "Oh good job."

"You know, I get all my criminal tendencies from you. What are you going to do now?"

"Try to figure out what you and the others that failed have in common. Got any enemies you know about?"

"Well, there's the Klan." he jokes.

"This is not really their M.O." she snarks.

"I guess that leaves everybody that hates  _you_." he says grabbing his stuff and headed to class.

* * *

She goes over to talk to Kelvin about the case.

"Guess things are different, now that your boy failed his test, huh?" Kelvin snarks.

"So, and I mean other than me, can you think of anyone who would want to do this to you?" she asks.

"No. People love me." Kelvin states.

"No, they don't. You pick on the weak and helpless."

He thinks for a moment before answering. "This kid, a sophomore, they call him Butters. You know, he was climbing the pegboard in gym class before PE last year. Tryin' to show off. It pissed me off."

"So?"

"So I pantsed him! It was hysterical!"

She rolls her eyes and snaps his photo.

* * *

She talks to each of the kids that failed.

Jilly tells her that her dad is getting sued by Boatloads of Fun Corp. Seems her dad leased a house to a group of families that call themselves "Boatloads of Fun". The roof leaked in one room, so they want all of their money back.

She snaps Jilly's picture.

* * *

Next she talks to Viet, who tells her that he beat out Jennings Crawford for number one singles last year in tennis. Jennings threw a fit, and his parents even tried to have the coach fired. There was a school board meeting, and they brought in Ilie Nastase to testify that Jennings was a better player than Viet.

She snaps Viet's picture.

* * *

She takes a deep breath before going over to Meg. "I heard that you were kicked off the cheerleading squad."

"Yeah, but you know me, I'm a major stoner. It was really affecting me, too, I was like, "Let's go! Let's go! L-E-T-S...duh..."." Meg snarks.

"Can you think of anyone who might have done this to you?" she asks completely uncomfortable.

"Well, there is this one person. I used to think she was a friend, but, uh...but yeah, yeah, now that I think about it, she'd have no reservations and she definitely has the talent to pull it off. Let me know if you have any luck tracking her down, 'kay?" Meg says before walking off.

_Yeah, should have expected that. Of course she is still upset about Duncan breaking up with her. I didn't have anything to do with that but as far as Meg is concerned I am the woman that took her man. Even though I am not with said man. Duncan did try but I have changed too much to get caught back up in the drama of Duncan Kane._

* * *

She has looking into to the failed tests when Wallace bursts into her room.

"Know what else I found out today? This failed drug test goes on my permanent file. Any college I apply to is gonna see it." he tells her.

"Well, if you would've taken another year of office aide we could've done something about that file." she tries to joke.

"Yeah, cause this is  _my_  fault. Did you learn anything today?"

"Kelvin Moore, while giving up his pot-smoking ways, has not given up being an obnoxious jackass." she states.

She finds out that everyone that failed were there when Kelvin pansted Butters.

They walk out of her room.

"I'll talk to Butters tomorrow." she says as her dad walks in.

"I know a 24-year-old floozie who thinks you're hot." she jokes.

"This floozie, did you get her digits?" Keith asks.

"Hey, all right now, don't make me have to go home and tell my mama." Wallace says.

"Wallace, your mother and I have an understanding." Keith says in all seriousness.

"You do?" she asks.

"Yes, and it's this; I behave myself, and she doesn't leave me. So please, tell her nothing, other than I worship the ground on which she treads." he says.

"I'm leavin' now." Wallace laughs as he grabs his stuff.

"The ground on which she treads. You might want to write that down." he says pleading with a grin.

"Got it." Wallace says leaving.

"So. Senior year. How was your first day of school, honey?" he asks sitting down.

"Great. I beat up a freshman, stole his lunch money, and then skipped out after lunch." she says with a smile.

"What, no premarital sex?" he asks shocked.

"Oh. Yeah. Yes. But don't worry, Dad. I swear you're gonna like these guys."

"That's my girl." he says as she gives him a hug.

"I missed you."

"Ah, I missed you too. Now where's my turkey pot pie, woman?"

* * *

"Butters?" she asks coming up to him.

"'Butters' is the name of the weak, loser suck-up on  _South Park_. "Butters" implies soft, fat..."

"But oh so delicious." she snarks.

"My given name is Vincent."

"I hear you were pantsed in gym last spring, Vincent."

" Are you requesting a private viewing?"

"And now, the guy who pantsed you and all the people who might have chuckled end up kicked off athletics for the year. Curious."

"Justice. It can be a bitch."

"You're playing a dangerous game. Kelvin will take your head off if I tell him you're the reason he's off football this year."

"You know what? I don't think he will. Hey, Pop." he says as Mr. Clemmons passes them.

"Son."

_well shit._

* * *

She and Wallace get into the office to look at Wallace's permanent file.

"Permanent files are in that brownish-beige filing cabinet." Wallace tells her.

"I can't believe after a year of working here you don't know the make and model of the filing cabinet." she says taking out her keys.

"Yeah, it is hard to believe. Usually, memorizing that information is the first thing I do when I enter a room containing a filing cabinet."

Thinking, she searches Clemmon's desk and finds the key that she needs.

"Scary, isn't it? The lax security? What if someone was trying to alter your permanent file?" she snarks.

_"We're_  trying to alter it, right now."

"Alter it  _back_. There's a difference." she states.

"Alter it back. Cool. I was wondering where we were drawing that ethical line this year."

She looks closely at Wallace's file and compares it to other ones. She assumes the results were overnighted to Clemmons and his son altered them before he saw it.

The negative and positive drug test results are in different ink and have full sentences, not just a checkmark. There are no eraser marks or white-out, and they were all signed by Jim Chimory.

"So there's no alterations, there's no forgery..." Wallace asks.

"So it appears."

"So I'm screwed, basically."

"Unless...the results were accurate." she says with a look in her eyes.

"Yeah, mon. Maybe I smoke so much ganja, I don't even remembah doin' it." he says with a accent.

"Eat any mystery brownies lately?"she questions.

"Spirit b...!" he covers his mouth. "Spirit boxes! The day of the Back to School Athletics Banquet, there were spirit boxes in our lockers. There weren't any brownies in there, but there were cookies."

"Did you eat one?"

"I ate six."

"That's my Wallace. I'll stop at the drugstore on the way to my house. Meet me there." she says grabbing her stuff and making it appear like they were never there.

"I'll follow you."

_Yeah, ever since Logan was released Neptune became a different place._

* * *

"Are you done yet?" she asks knocking on her bathroom door.

"It is  _never_  going to happen if you keep doin' that!" Wallace yells though the door.

"I see. Stage fright? I'm making you nervous. Well, according to the box we only need a few drops and it'll test for cocaine, steroids, pot..." she stops as her dad walks in.

"What's up, honey?" he says with a grin.

"Wallace is having a little trouble giving me a urine sample." she tells him. "Can you give him some pointers?"

"Wallace?" Keith calls out.

"Yep."

"You try turning the water on?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Also, pinching your own nipples can sometimes work."

"Aaaahhhh, man!" Wallace calls out.

"Gross!" she exclaims

"Honey, it works!" Keith says.

"I can barely even look at you now."

"I can't believe how squeamish you are." he says as she kicks him out of the room.

She is able to do the test.

"Your clean. Which means that Butters didn't mess with the cookies and we are back to square one." she says sitting on her desk looking at the white board she ha up with everyone that has failed pictures.

"Well, its going to be a bad year for Neptune."

"Why do you say that?"

"Everyone that failed are the star players."

"Who replaces them."

Wallace lists several students, including Steve Wacker.

"Dad, can you come here." she calls out.

He comes into the room.

"If I know the name of a corporation, how do I find out the names of its shareholders?" she asks.

'You get the strangest homework in health class." he says.

"Can you keep your trap shut if we tell you why we need it? No running off and telling your girlfriend."

" Agreed."

"Wallace has been kicked out of athletics for his entire senior year for failing the mandatory drug test. But Wallace is clean. See for yourself." she says trying to hand him the test.

"Ah...I take your word for it." he says and moves to her computer.

After telling him the name, he looks up Boatloads of Fun Corporation. All of the shareholders are the parents of the students who would replace the starters.

All except the Days, which explains why their son's drug test was negative.

* * *

"So what's the plan?" Wallace asks her.

"We're gonna scare 'em."

"How is that gonna help me?"

"Well...it'll be fun. I'm going to send all the parnets an email from the lab tech that signed off on the test and request a meet. Don't worry, you'll be back on the team in no time."

The new journalism teacher, Ms. Dumass interrupts them to ask for a permission slip.

"She's taking anyone from newspaper, yearbook, and broadcast news class who wants to tour Shark field tomorrow." she explains to Wallace when he looks at her strange.

"Wow. I can't believe  _you're_  going." he jokes.

"I like baseball."

"Yeah, but you don't like people."

She opens her mouth to deny it but just laughs instead.

"Oh, I get it. Normal is the watchword. See ya later, supafly." he says grabbing his stuff and leaving.

She collects her bag and leaves.

She falters slightly when she sees Weevil and some of the PCHers.

_Normal...like having two friends pissed at you._

She walks past them, feeling their eyes on her.

_If looks could kill._

* * *

A couple tells her that they're meeting Jim Chimory at work that night.

She shows them to a table where several other partners from Boatloads of Fun Corp. are sitting.

She approaches Clemmons and asks him if he's heard enough.

He pulls out an earpiece and says he has.

* * *

She joins the others as they get on the bus. She passes Meg, who glares at her.

Dick and Beaver just ignore her.

Duncan tries to show that he has room for her to sit next to him. She passes and sits down next to Cervando.

"Ummm..." Cervando.

"Its safer sitting with you. Don't worry it won't ruin your rep to sit with me for a short amount of time." she says softly.

"If Weevil..."

"Does Weevil know that you work with me at the Hut? Or that you have followed me home to make sure I am safe?"

"No..."

"It's okay. I get it. I'm on his..."

Cervando just smirks and they start talking about work.

"Miss Dumbass!" Dick yells.

"It's "du-mahs," Dick." the teacher replies.

"Well, my name's pronounced "Ree-shard," and it stinks back here." Dick states.

"You can come sit up here by me."

"Nay, I'm good." he says sitting back down. He turns to Duncan only to see him staring at Veronica.

"Dude, let it go. Hey." he says hitting his shoulder. "Who's the lovely young flower blossoming into womanhood?" he asks pointing out a new girl.

* * *

Woody Goodman talks to the students. He is the owner of the Sharks baseball team and is running for mayor of Neptune. He thought his daughter should attend the public school because of this. He wanted to host the field trip so his daughter, Gia, could get to know some students. Newspaper was her favorite thing in her private school.

"Hello. Friend." Dick says moving close to Gia.

**"** Hello. Okay, so far, working." Gia says standing up. "Okay, just so everyone knows, I don't always dress like this. I didn't know if you guys were doing, like, relaxed beachy, or the West-Coast-wannabe-East-Coast urban, so FYI, it's not a statement. I'm just doing the new-school-blend-in thing."

She stays by Cervando nearly the entire time as they get food.

Other than this, work is really the only time the hang out.

She had been surprised when he started at the Hut until he explained that he was trying to help out his mom with the bills.

They had an unspoken agreement not to mention Felix, Logan or Weevil and it worked out.

They see Terrence Cook, a famous baseball player, talk to Woody.

She notices Dick talking to Duncan before he goes to talk to Meg.  _Wonder what that is about?_

Terrence gets some food.

"Excuse me, Mr. Cook?" she says going over to him, Cervando not far behind.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say you are my dad's favorite baseball player, ever. He keeps your rookie card vacuum-sealed inside a safe."

"Well that is an honor. Tell him thanks for me." he says shaking her hand.

"When my dad finds out about this, he's not gonna let me wash this hand." she jokes seriously.

* * *

Seems Dick being himself, got a limo to collect him and the other 09ers.

She isn't surprised that Meg joins them in the limo when she realizes that she is on the bus.

* * *

The bus pulls into a gas station and Ms. Dumass says they have five minutes.

She comes out of the store and swears that she hears her name called. She turns around, and Lilly's ghost runs behind the store.

She follows and finds Weevil there with his motorcycle. He isn't happy to see her.

Cervando looks out the window when Ms. Dumass asks if everyone is there. He sees Weevil talking with V and with a smile calls out that they are all there.

"What are you doin' here, huh? Shouldn't you be running for homecoming queen or something?" Weevil remarks.

"I'm safe standing here, right? I mean, you're not going to shoot me, are you?" she retorts.

"Surprised you're not with one of those rich white boys."

"You don't know everything, there's a shock." she scoffs.

"I know that Logan killed Felix and got away with it because he's rich and white."

"Six of your boys jumped him. Broke his ribs and gave him a concussion. Yet somehow he wrestled a knife away and killed Felix?"

"I was there..."

"You were out cold."

"What Felix stabbed himself?"

"Somebody did."

"It wasn't one of my boys. Nothing goes down without my say so."

"So you knew that one of your boys shot out Logan's car window while I was in the car."

He just looks at her and clenches his jaw.

"Are you sure that you're still in charge?" she asks.

She turns to go in time to see the bus drive away.

She turns back to Weevil who gets on his bike and drive away.

She pulls out her phone and starts dialing Wallace.

"Mars." she looks up to see Weevil returned and is holding out a helmet.

* * *

They are riding for a bit when they see the limo pulled off to the side of the road and notice what looks like smoke.

Getting off the bike she runs to join Duncan, Meg and the others.

"It went straight off the cliff. They're all dead." Gia cries. "They're all dead!"

She doesn't know why she does it but she turns to Weevil and wraps her arms around him.

She hears him whispering to her in Spanish, at the moment he could be calling her every name under the sun and she wouldn't care as long as he keeps his arms around her.

_This is Neptune, nothing is an accident._


	2. Chapter 2

_If a school bus, traveling forty miles per hour, drives off a cliff and plunges ninety feet into the jagged coastline, how many seconds did the five high school students, their teacher, and bus driver have to contemplate the fact that they're about to die? Two Mississipis' worth of screams, life flashes, and prayers, maybe? i just wish the prayers had worked._

"Veronica, go home." her manager says coming over to her. "No one seems to be able to concentrate. I'm closing early."

She nods and goes to collect her bag thankful. Everyone has been messing up orders today and more than once she ignored customers waiting to be seated.

"Ummmm..Veronica, right?" she hears behind her.

"Yeah." she turns to find Cervando's mother. She had seen her a couple times when she had dropped him off.

"Hi..." she says nervously putting her bag over her shoulder.

"I wanted to thank you." she says clutching a box of Cervando's things from his locker.

"Thank me? I..."

"My _mijo._ He talked about you all the time...How you treated him like a person not ..." she starts to cry.

She maneuvers the woman to one of the tables and sits with her while she cries.

"I'm sorry we're closing." she hears the manager saying to some girl that is at the door. Turning she watches as the girl tries to come in.

"Oh, but you're still open, could I get a macchiato?"

"Sorry but..." the manager starts.

"Look you're still open and I am the customer." the girl snarks.

"Well I am the manager and I say I am closed so you are out of luck." she says turning around ignoring the girl, whose mouth dropped open.

She smiles softly before turning back to Cervando's mom. Not knowing what to say she just holds her hand and lets her cry.

* * *

She enters the bathroom the next day and the bus driver's daughter is there.

"You know who I am?"

"Yeah."

"Did you know who I was last week?"

"Not really..."

"I doubt you'll do this but I want to hire you."

"What?" she turns to face her.

"I want you to prove my dad didn't commit suicide and take our classmates with him."

"I...don't know what to say."

"See, I have a mother and a little brother. We've gotten use to having a place to live and food. Insurance companies don't pay out if it's ruled suicide."

"I wouldn't even know where to start."

They are interrupted by some 09er clones.

"Hmmm, I'm surprised you are even showing your face around school. If I was you I would run and hide..." whatever she was going to say next is cut off when Jessie punches the girl. She pulls her off and agrees to help.

"I'll help, okay. Not sure where to start but I'll help. So, you need to chill."

* * *

After school, the two of them go to the crash site, which has become a memorial.

Stooping down, she helps a man light a candle.

"I guess my dad doesn't rate a votive candle." Jessie snarls when she comes over to her.

"Jessie..."

"If you were on that bus, you would want your pile to be the biggest." Jessie cries out getting other peoples attention.

She pulls her back to her car and they leave.

* * *

She drops Jessie off at home before running to the office to run Jessie's dad through the search sites.

Unfortunately her dad has nothing in his history that she can find that would help prove he didn't drive off the cliff on purpose.

_Back to square one._

* * *

She's working on her homework when her dad comes home with Chinese food for supper.

She gets plates while he turns on the TV for some background noise.

They hear a woman's voice on the TV talking about the bus driver. Duane, a worker at the gas station convenience store, tells the reporter that Ed behaved oddly when he came into the store. He bought some things, started to leave, then came back, bought a St. Christopher medal, and threw it away.

"I can't imagine where I'd be if you had gotten back on that bus." he tells her.

"You'd be sad for a while, and then you'd probably turn my room into some sort of sewing nook or yoga studio." she jokes.

"Veronica..."

"I wonder what else he bought. If he got some Red Bull or something like that it would mean that he was tired and might have gone off the road because he fell asleep."

"Honey, this isn't something that you are going to be able to make sense of."

"I know his daughter and she wants to understand this. I'm going to try to help." she says. _Not just for her but for me too.._

* * *

She isn't surprised that Weevil is at the convenience store when she gets there the next day.

"V." he says coming over to her as she gets out of her car.

"Weevil..what are you doing here?"

"I know you. I've seen you talking with the driver's daughter. What are you doing here?"

"Honestly."

He nods.

"Jessie wants proof that her dad didn't kill himself and take Cervando plus everyone else with him. I want this to be an accident." she says softly.

"Umm.. I didn't realize that you and Cervando were friends." he says rubbing a hand over his head.

"We didn't really talk outside of work. He was loyal to you but he was nice to me. Made sure I got home safe more than once."

"I knew he was working just didn't know where." he says rubbing the back of his neck. "You okay?"

"Just have lots of conflicting emotions lately."

"Like what?" he asks.

"I feel grief for everyone that lost someone, guilt that Cervando was on the bus and joy because I'm alive." she breaks down slightly. He steps closer to her and after debating, places his hands on her arms and runs his hands up and down her arms.

"Okay, time to work." she says moving away from him otherwise she isn't going to want to move.

They head in and the first thing they find are crash souvenirs. Weevil turns and goes back outside. _Don't blame you..._

She is trying to keep her anger under control when her phone starts ringing.

"Hey, Wallace."

"What you doing?"

"Remembering why I'm a misanthrope. They're selling souvenirs. Crash souvenirs."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Did you need me for something"

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it myself."

Taking a few deep breaths to get herself under control she goes over to the counter where the same worker, Duane is working.

She talks to him and asks for the bus driver's last meal, which was a Slurpee and bag of peanuts.

Noticing the no change sign and payphone she figures out that he needed change for a call and bought the cheapest thing he could get.

_Who did he call, and why doesn't anyone know about it?_

* * *

She walks out of the store to find Weevil waiting by her car. Holding his hand.

"What did you do?" she asks noticing that his knuckles are bruised.

"Nothing." he says shrugging his shoulders.

"Whatever you say. You okay?" she asks softly.

"Been better. Find anything?" he asks standing.

"Possible. Have to go check something out. I'll see you."

He nods and walks off as she gets in the car.

* * *

She pretends to be filling out an application for a receptionist position at the station and when she convinces Sacks to leave her alone She gets access to the payphone records.

She has luckily gotten everything she needed when Lamb burst in and pulls her out.

* * *

She goes to see Jessie.

"Your dad made a call to someone named Cotter. Whoever they are live nearby."

Jessie doesn't recognize the name.

Sheriff Lamb shows up with a search warrant.

* * *

Wallace shows her an article about Cervando the instant she walks through the door of Sac-n-Pac.

"That annoys me." she says reading the article "He cried when he fist saw 'Stand and Deliver'. God, this is utter bullshit." she says reading the article quickly. "I know none of PCHers or his mother have talked to any reporters, where did they get this junk?"

"I overheard some girl talking about him in homeroom. This new girl was eating it up..."

"Yeah, and blabbed what they thought they knew for a couple minutes of fame."

"Don't worry about it, supafly. Making any progress in your case?" he asks.

"Maybe. In fact I am on my way to see the people that he called. Hopefully they will be some help. See you later." she says throwing the paper in the trash as she leaves.

* * *

Jeff Cotter answers the door.

"Hi, I was wondering if you know Ed Doyle?" she asks.

"I know who he is, but I didn't know him." he replies.

_Dammit._

"Ed called your house about 15 minutes before he drove off the cliff." she tells him.

"I wasn't home. Carla!" he yells turning.

Carla comes to join them at the door.

"You remember getting a call from Ed Doyle?" Jeff asks.

"No but we did have a wrong number it could have been that day."

Her phone starts ringing so she thanks them and leaves. She's not that far when she answers her phone.

_It's Jessie._

"Veronica, you can stop now. Lamb found a suicide note on my dad's computer."

She doesn't even think and rushes over to Jessie's.

* * *

Jessie lets her in on to find her mom screaming at the little boy on the couch.

"Stop crying for him! He didn't care about us!" the woman yells before stalking out of the room.

Jessie comforts her little brother before sending him out to play.

She pulls the note out of her pocket and reads it to her.

"I'm sorry to leave you this way but I truly believe in my heat that its for the best. I can't go on like this. I can't stay just for the kids even though they mean more to me than anything. This isn't good for them."

_That doesn't sound like a suicide note._

* * *

She goes back to the Cotter house and finds Mrs. Cotter.

"If it was a wrong number, why did it last for four minutes?" she asks.

"I..."

"I think that Mr. Doyle was going to be leaving his wife and kids for you..."

"Come inside." she opens the door and has her come inside.

* * *

She convinces Jessie to meet her at the Hut.

"What's going on Veronica?" Jessie asks.

"There's someone I want you to meet." she says and the two of them walk over to Carla.

"Carla, this is Jessie."

"Hi...you look just like you photo." Carla says.

"Veronica..what's going on?"

"I loved your dad...and he loved me. He called me to tell me that he was running behind but he would meet me that day." Carla tells her.

Jessie just stares at her.

"He didn't want to leave you and your brother with your mom...he loved the two of you so much." Carla says as she stats to cry.

Jessie is upset, but sits down.

"I wish I had been a little more selfish. I didn't get enough time with him." Carla tells Jessie as she walks away.

* * *

She gets home that night to find her dad cooking supper.

"What's the occasion?" she asks with a grin.

"I am going to be running for Sheriff." he says putting the food on the plates.

"Really!?" she asks.

He nods and she excitedly cheers before giving him a hug.

* * *

_Senior year. College applications due in three months, scholarship applications in six. Since most of my extracurricular activities cannot be divulged under state law, my guidance counselor, who just happens to be my dad's ex, strongly suggested I indulge in a little resume packing. So as of now, Veronica Mars is a Future Business Leader of America._

She enters a classroom just behind Meg as Mr. Pope introduces Mr. H. Richard Casablancas, C.E.O. of Casablancas Enterprises.

_Oh joy... Both my ex-boyfriends and other people that hate me._

Meg sits down next to Duncan, who pulls her desk close to him before kissing her.

"I think I just lost my appetite." Logan scoffs pushing the rest of his lunch away.

_Ditto.._

Big Dick talks to them about real estate. He explains the principle of real estate investment trusts, or REITs, where smaller investors pool their money to buy a share in property.

She looks through the Casablancas, Inc. brochure and notices the Sandpiper Hotel, a high-class, expensive piece of real estate.

"Here's a chart of our market capitalization versus earnings over the last two years. Now how's that look?"

"Awesome." Duncan exclaims.

_It looks like it's always looked, the rich get richer and everybody else hopes for scholarships._

* * *

"Veronica, hold up a minute." Beaver calls out to her.

"What's up, Beavs?"

"You still looking into things for people?" he asks.

"Why what's going on?" she asks stopping to look at him.

"I think my gold-digging stepmom is already cheating on my dad."

"Really? What makes you think that?"

"Found a condom wrapper in the living room."

"Could have been Dick's or..."

"Dick hates condoms, he gets that from dad. It's not mine so that leaves Kendall."

"There a prenup?"

"Of course. I'll pay you a grand to get a picture of her violation her prenup."

"I'll need her schedule." she says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls one out.

"Figured."

* * *

"Ten o'clock brunch with other trophy wives. Twelve o'clock Pilates class. Three o'clock spa reservation for Shiatsu massage, organic enzyme facial ... Maybe I should consider a career as a Neptune trophy wife." she mutters looking over the schedule as she walks to her car at the end of the day.

She stops when she sees Deputy Sacks in her way. Leaning against a cruiser.

"Lamb wants to ask you some questions, Veronica." he says opening the back door.

"My answer has not changed from last time. I will not go to prom with him." she snarks as she gets into the car. She notices Sacks try very hard not to laugh.

* * *

"So I guess you know why you're here. You wanna tell me about it?" Lamb says staring at her.

"I confess... I have no idea why I'm here." she snarks. "Though I'm sure my dad will like to know that you just ordered me here for no reason."

"You're eighteen now, kiddo. You're an adult. I don't need to get your daddy's approval."

"Well at least one of us is an adult. So are you going to tell me why I'm here, or should I see if my mind reading powers have finally awakened."

"What can you tell me about your relationship with this man?" Lamb says placing a open file on the table.

"Don't have one." she asks looking at the guy, that she saw at the cliff when she went with Jessie.

"You sure about that."

"I helped him light a candle at the bus memorial but I wouldn't call that a relationship."

Lamb holds up an evidence bag. "Missing an earring?"

"Not a diamond kinda girl." _Looks familiar though, where have I seen that before?_

"This was found outside the Road Hog, a known biker bar...the last place Curly here was seen alive."

"What does that have to do with me?" she asks.

Lamb shows her more pictures: one of Curly's body and another of Curly's hand with "Veronica Mars" written on it.

"He washed up on the beach, beaten to death with your name on him. Still don't think this has anything to do with you."

She looks at him in utter shock.

_It's official, hell has frozen over, because Lamb might actually be right about something._

* * *

She comes home to find her dad and Alicia on the couch.

"Child in the room! Hands where I can see 'em." she jokes and heads to her room quickly.

* * *

She turns on her laptop and looks up Kendall and Curly.

_Kendall Lacey Casablancas. Use to be Shifflet. Just another college dropout turned music video background dancer turned Laker girl living off a ten thousand dollar a year salary, a purse full of credit cards, and a string of boyfriends. Until a twice-divorced white knight swept her away to bimbo paradise. And for a true Hollywood story without the happy ending, David "Curly" Moran: one time stuntman who crashed his career in the '80s._

"So what's up, kiddo?" her dad asks before he enters the room. She quickly closes her laptop.

"None of your beeswax. ..." she says with a smile as he sits down."So, now that you've filed the official divorce papers for Mom...are you taking Wallace's mom to Chicago to propose to her?"

"Honey..."

"Don't think I won't go through your luggage to check for a ring." she says with a grin.

"No ring."

"Promise bracelet? Pre-engagement necklace? Earrings? Anything that can be qualified as bling?"

"Honey, can't a guy just take his special lady friend on a romantic..."

"A guy, yes. You, no."

"I promise, as soon as Alicia and I know what the next step is, you'll know what it is. Okay?"

"Okay." he kisses the top of her head before heading out.

* * *

She follows Kendall around. Making sure to snap photos when some random guy joins her for lunch.

Kendall leaves the gym with the guy.

She continues to take pictures from her car as Kendall and the man go into a room on the second floor of a hotel.

* * *

She sitting at the table during lunch when Wallace joins her.

"What you lookin' at?" he asks as she closes the folder with the pictures she was examining.

"Work stuff."

He waves at Jackie, and she smiles and walks over to join them.

"You've met Jackie right?"

"We haven't been introduced. I just didn't know you were lunch buddies."

"I'm working for lunch buddies with privileges." he says with a smirk. "I like her, okay? Retract claws."

"Claws? What claws?" she says looking at her nails.

Jackie sits down, placing her food tray and book on the table.

"So have the two of you met?" he asks.

"No." Jackie says with a smile. She just smiles in return.

"No matter how many schools I end up at, I never seem to escape that." Jackie says pointing at the book, _**Pride and Prejudice.**_

_Alright, how's this for a wing girl._

"You know I'm going to be renting the movie with Colin Firth and tons of Chinese food. The two of you are more than welcome to join me." she says.

Jackie accepts, and Wallace mouths 'thank you'.

* * *

She sits down to take break with Beaver to show him the photos.

"This doesn't work." he says frustrated. "Her and some guy switching bags isn't proof."

"Okay, load this with all the music she listens too. I have an idea." she says handing him a blank iPod that looks like the same one Kendall has.

* * *

She pulls into the parking lot of Curly's work.

_Please have left something that gives me a clue why the hell you had my name on your hand._

"Sorry we don't service those kinds of cars." a guy says motioning to her car.

"I called earlier, Curly's niece."

"Yeah, this way." he says turning to have her follow him. He shows her a box on an empty area. "This is everything." he says before walking off.

Grabbing the box she leaves. Placing it on the seat next to her, she digs through. There are a few framed pictures in there, including one of Curly with Aaron Echolls. Aaron signed it saying, "All these years still on 'The Long Haul.'"

_So we have a a psycho in common, great._

* * *

She walks into FBLA and finds a seat as far from Duncan and Meg as she can get.

Logan sits down next to her. _Yeah someone hates me._

"Congratulations! You are now worth exactly one million dollars." Mr. Pope tells them when he enters the class.

"What? You mean I've lost money?" Logan snarks.

"No, Logan. Every year I play a little stock market game with my class. Now, you may invest your money any way you see fit, as long as it's legal." Mr. Pope says looking right at Dick.

"The student with the most valuable holdings at the closing bell on June 1st will claim a small shiny plaque with his or her name on it and all attendant bragging rights. Also, anyone that can beat my income gets a cash prize."

"How much real money did you make?" Logan asks.

"Enough to retire in exactly nine months. I would've retired earlier, but actually, the, uh, the restoration's been tricky. We had to re-seal the hull.

"Didn't plug her right, huh?" Logan smirks looking right at Duncan.

Duncan just glares at him as Meg places her hand on his arm.

_I don't think they are going to be friends again any time soon._

* * *

"Hey come on in." she tells Wallace and Jackie when they get to her place that night.

"Chinese food and a movie, my kind of night." Wallace says grinning.

"Any night with tons of food is your kind of night." she jokes as they sit down to watch the movie. Them on the couch and her in dad's chair.

They have just started the movie when there is a knock at her door. Pausing she gets up.

"Hey V." Weevil says coming in.

"Umm, what's up?" she asks.

"Can we talk?" he asks. "Privately?"

She nods and has him follow her to her room.

"Wondered what your room would look like. Kinda what I thought." he says looking around.

"Weevil, what's going on?"

"Normally I wouldn't care but I promised _Abuelita_ that I would graduate this year... You're smart, could you help me?"

"In what?" _Not speaking for weeks and now suddenly you want me to tutor you. Stuff like this can give a girl whiplash._

"Everything." he says unable to meet her eyes.

"Can I think about it?"

"Yeah...sure." he says and starts to leave the room.

"We're watching _**Pride and Prejudice.**_ It's part of English. Stay." she says swallowing.

He nods and they go back into the living room and she restarts the movie as he takes off his jacket as he sits on the floor in front of her.

"There's plenty of food left if you're hungry." Jackie says.

Weevil nods and grabs a container and starts eating. Leaning back so that his shoulders brush against her knees.

_This is weird but I like it._

* * *

Wallace helps Jackie with her jacket as Weevil helps her clean up.

"See you later, Supafly." Wallace with a look in his eye that he wants an explanation.

She nods getting the message.

"Nice to meet you." Jackie tells her.

She just smiles as the two of them walk out.

"I got this if you want to head out." she tells him taking the empty containers out of his hands.

" _Abuela_ would have my hide if I let you clean up on your own." he says putting the few plates into the sink. They work in silence cleaning the living room and getting the dishes done. "V..thanks."

She looks over at him as he puts on his jacket. "For what?"

He just smirks and leaves, not answering her.

* * *

_This is a good time to catch her._

She gets off the treadmill next to Kendall. Knowing she can't hear her she starts making up a story to exchange the iPods.

"What?" Kendall asks taking the earbuds out of her ears.

"Sorry, my iPod is acting up but I'm not sure if it's the earbuds. So I thought since we have the same one I could do a quick test."

"Whatever, make it quick." Kendall says unplugging her earbuds and handing the iPod over.

Making the switch, she hands over the iPod with the hidden camera and walks off.

* * *

She follows Kendall to the cheap hotel with the same guy.

She picks up her phone and dials Beaver, only to get his voicemail.

"Made the switch, now it's up to you to grab the iPod and meet me at work tonight."

She takes her camera out again and snaps a picture of the hotel name, Sandpiper Hotel. _Oh shit_ She pulls the Casablancas real estate brochure out of her bag and flips to the page that had an expensive five-star hotel on it called the Sandpiper Hotel. She looks at the hotel again and sees the man leave.

She follows the guy to the county assessor office. Only to find out that the guy is the assessor.

* * *

Feeling uneasy, she swings back to school and luckily finds Mr. Pope in his classroom.

"What can you tell me about real estate fraud?" she asks walking into the classroom.

"Well it's hard to do since most people wont buy sight unseen." he tells her. "There are safeguards in place, such as a assessor making sure the property is sold fairly."

"What if you bribe the assessor?" she asks.

"You'll still need to find a buyer that has no clue what's happening. You could borrow against an inflated property to buy more property and inflate its value..."

"Sell your stock." she says pulling out the brochure and photo she just took of the Sandpiper.

"This has to be a mistake." he mumbles.

"I'm sorry. Get rid of your stock."

"I can't. I would have to sell it to someone and I can't do that to someone else."

Without a word she leaves him alone, hating her job at the moment.

* * *

Taking a short break, she sits down next to Beaver and turns on her laptop.

"I can't even see the camera." he says handing her the iPod.

"That's the point. Now there is going to be a lot of photos. I set it up to take a photo every fifteen seconds." she says taking it and plugging it into her laptop.

"Umm, Veronica." he says pointing out that people are waiting.

She leaves to take care of them while he continues to look through the pictures.

She's annoyed to find Jackie standing there with some random guy.

"Oh, hey Veronica." Jackie says.

"Hey Jackie. Just the two of you."

The guy nods and pulls Jackie closer to him. CLenching her jaw she leads them over to an emtpy booth.

"Veronica wait a second." Jackie says as she turns to leave.

Turning to face her, "Yes."

"Listen I just moved her. I'm having fun. Wallace is just a friend, he knows that." Jackie tells her trying to justify her being out with another guy.

"Alright, but the instant you become more than friends and I see you out on a date with someone that's not Wallace. We will have a problem, clear?"

"Crystal." Jackie says and turns to go back to her date.

She goes back over to where she left Beaver, not looking forward to telling him what she found out about his dad. Unfortantly, Beaver and the iPod are long gone.

She turns the laptop towards her to find pictures of a shirtless Logan with Kendall reflected in a mirror unbuttoning her shirt. _I really have bad karma._

* * *

Once again hearing Logan's voice mail message she just barely stops herself from throwing the phone.

* * *

Pulling into the driveway, she's annoyed to see Logan's car. Not bothering to knock, she goes right in.

"I love the changes you've made." she snarks when she looks around his bedroom, Logan standing in the doorway of his private bath.

"Yeah, well now you know what you missed out on."

"Is your little girlfriend still here?" she asks ignoring his remark about not having sex with him.

"Girlfriend, uh, you're going to have to be a little more specific." he says drying his hair.

"Alright, the one whose husband is gonna murder you when he finds out that his son's best friend is secretly screwing his wife."

"Oh, her. She's less of a girlfriend and more a...playmate." he jokes with a smirk on his face.

"God, Logan. What if I had been her husband? What would you have done? Just stand there in your towel with your room still reeking of his wife's cheap perfume?

"Well I guess it's a good thing that I have an ex-girlfriend that cares so much about me." he snarks.

"It was a job, nothing else." she says turning to leave the house.

On her way out of the house, she stops when she sees several framed movie posters on the wall. She notices one poster of a movie called _The Long Haul._

_What did Aaron write. 'All these years still on The Long Haul'. It had a stunt where a truck was sent over a bridge. Supervises by..David 'Curly' Moran._

"You know if this is storming out..."

She glares at him and walks out, quickly getting in her car and driving off.

* * *

She pulls up in front of his house and sits in her car unsure why she came here.

"Hey, V. You stalking me now." Weevil says leaning into her open window.

"It was me." she says as the tears start to fall.

" _Que_?"

"The bus crash. It was meant for me. They're dead because of me."

He opens her door and pulls her out of the car. He wraps his arms around her as she cries.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All recognizable dialogue/situations belongs to the creators everything else is mine :)

She pulls up in front of his house and sits in her car unsure why she came here.

"Hey, V. You stalking me now." Weevil says leaning into her open window.

"It was me." she says as the tears start to fall.

" _Que_?"

"The bus crash. It was meant for me. They're dead because of me."

He opens her door and pulls her out of the car. He wraps his arms around her as she cries.

She's not sure how long she stands there clinging to him.

"You want to explain." he says softly as she pulls away.

"No..." she whispers. "I need to go.." she says quickly getting back into the car.

"V..." he says watching as she drives off, rubbing a hand over his head. "FUCK!"

* * *

**A Few Days Later**

_Working on a weekend...Aww the things we do for the ones we love._

She works on getting her dads files in order, otherwise they will be a utter mess. She looks around and smiles at the 'Vote Mars' posters that are everywhere around the office.

"I need a detective." a woman says as she rushes into the office.

"Right place but we're actually not open at the moment."

The woman, Julie says that she needs her dad to investigate whether or not her boyfriend, Collin, is cheating.

Her dad comes in as Julie is leaving.

"Ah, Keith Mars meet Julie Bloch."

Julie nods at him and leaves.

Her dad tells her that he is unable to take on another case since he is running for sheriff.

She fakes a call to Julie to make her dad happy.

_Dad might be too busy but I think I can pencil in some time to make a couple quick G's._

* * *

A the Hut, Julie tells her about all the signs of cheating that she has noticed.

* * *

**The Next Morning Before School**

_Man this guy is boring. I think she might be a little off about him cheating._

She takes photos of him running laps when she gets a call from Julie.

Julie tells her about the number that has been calling him at all hours.

* * *

She bumps into Wallace at their lockers.

"So..my dad stay over at your place?" she asks opening her locker.

"Any doubt." Wallace says removing books from his locker.

"He pull the fake donut run?"

Wallace pulls the bag of donuts from his locker. "You want?"

Before she can answer, Jackie comes up and wraps her arms around him. "He's mine ladies. Back off." she says laughing.

She laughs softly at their antics and watches as they walk off. _Keep making him happy and I have no problems with you._

* * *

"Hey V." Weevil calls after her as she heads to her car.

"What's up?" she asks when he gets to her. _Please don't mention my breakdown...please._

"You decide about the tutoring?"

With a smile, "I'll help. So not to ruin your rep we can do it at my house or yours."

"We can do it huh?"

She rolls her eyes and notices that he is wearing hoop earring.

"What's with the hoops? If I give you a rub, will I get three wishes?" she jokes knowing exactly how it sounded.

He just smirks. "You give me a rub and you'll get more than three wishes."

**_Lose an earring ~ Lamb_ **

"Where's that disco ball you've been wearing for years?"

"Maybe lost it in some chick's bedroom." he scoffs running a hand over his head.

"Really?" she snarks.

He just smiles that 'You know you love me' smile.

"I have a feeling it more likely in an evidence bag at the sheriff's office."

"Shit..." he mutters.

"Know a Curly Moran?" she asks as they reach her car.

"What's he saying I did?"

"Nothing..he's kinda dead."

"Shit. Okay...a couple weeks ago, I get this call that Curly was behind the crash. Told me he was hired by the Fitzpatricks to get at Cervando."

"Why the hell would the Fighting Fitzpatricks want with him?"

"Our boy had been going around bragging about how he hustled Liam Fitzpatrick out of a few grand down at River Styx."

"Oh god." she says remembering when he came in trying to tell her about a pool game. "All right, what did you do with the info?"

"Nothing." he says shrugging looking away from her. "The Fitzpatricks are meth-head lunatics, but they're not gonna kill a bus full of kids over a few grand. They would have come after Cervando with a baseball bat in a dark alley."

"You still have the number?" she asks. _I know you are lying but I know you're not a killer._

He reaches into his pocket, pulls out his phone and hands it to her.

"I tried call mystery dude back but it just rings."

She copies down the number he points out into her phone.

"You um...you still gonna help me with..."

"Meet me at my place tonight at eight. Bring your books."

He nods as she gets into her car and drives off.

* * *

She follows Collin to a random house.

_Okay, this isn't tennis practice._

She parks far enough away to get photos and not be seen. She gets the photo of Collin and the woman who answers the door before he goes inside.

She uploads the photos to her laptop and sends them to Julie. Grabbing her phone, she call Julie.

"Hi Julie, it's Veronica. I just sent you an email. By any chance do you know anyone who lives at eighty-five-twenty Primrose Lane?"

"No..."

"Okay, I'm afraid that I got some bad news. Collin is not at his tennis lesson."

"What else?" Julie asks.

"That number you asked about...well it belongs to whoever lives here. Do you know the woman in the photo?"

Julie stays quiet.

"Julie?" she asks as she starts to hear whimpering. "Julie, calm down. I'll get more and call you. Okay?"

"Sure..." Julie says before hanging up.

_That was fun._

She grabs her camera and creeps around the house, hoping to catch him in the act. She finds Collin getting a Hebrew lesson.

_**Que**? Hebrew lesson?_

Before she can take a photo, she hears a car tearing up to the house.

"Rut-Roh." she whispers seeing Julie get out of the car. She quickly goes to her and grabs her before she reaces the yard. "Julie! STOP!"

"He's cheating on me!" Julie yells.

"He's not cheating. He's with a rabbi."

"He's not Jewish. I'm Jewish." Julie exclaims.

She just stares at her. "You there yet?"

"Oh..." Julie says sitting down on the ground.

* * *

"Thanks for this, V." Weevil says as he grabs his books and gets ready to go.

"No problem. I like Letty and I know that you are doing this for her." she says.

"She likes you too." he says. "Are you ever going to tell me why you think the crash is your fault?" he asks.

"Damn..." she whispers. Taking a deep breath. "Curly Moran knew Aaron. He worked on a movie, 'The Long Haul', had a stunt that..."

"Shit, I know that movie. You seriously think that Echolls had his old pal make the bus go off the cliff to get at you."

"No witness. No victim. No crime. He goes free." she says wrapping her arms around herself.

"I don't believe it. I know the man is insane but a bus full of kids to get one person. V...even if you were gone, Duncan saw the tapes too, right."

"Yeah." she says softly.

"You caught Lilly's killer. He is behind bars. The crash had nothing to do with you." he says sitting down next to her and placing his hand on her knee.

"I want to believe that." she says fighting the urge to lean into him.

"Well, I do. I need to get out of here before your dad comes home and kicks me out." he says getting up, grabs his stuff and gets ready to walk out the door. "Don't worry, V." he says before leaving.

* * *

Unable to sleep, she lays in her bed staring at the ceiling.

When her phone starts ringing, she doesn't even look she just answers it.

"Does he still love her?" the person on the other end asks.

"What? Julie?" she asks confused for a moment.

"The photo of the woman? Do you think he still loves her?"

"Julie...It's after two in the morning. The silver package has its perks but post midnight girl-talk is not one of them." she says running her fingers through her hair.

"Can I upgrade? What's after silver?"

"Psycho-stalker." she mumbles.

"Huh?"

"Gold..." she says sitting up. "It's three thousand."

"What...does it include?"

"Ummm, we dig deeper. Three months of internet activity, heavier surveillance. We set up a temptation scenario and see if he responds."

"Perfect. That's exactly what I want. And with the gold package, can you find out who that is in the photo on the bar?"

"Sure and Julie...there is a fine line between looking for a problem and starting one. Night." she says hanging up.

* * *

She goes to school and calls her regular temptation girl to set up Collin and asks that she calls her back before the afternoon so that she can get this done today.

"Whatca doing?" Wallace asks sitting down as she ends her message.

"Trying to set up a somewhat decent guy to see if he falls for the bait." she says. "You?

"Got plans to study with Jackie after school." he says with a smile.

"Really?" she says with a smirk. "What?"

"Health..maybe Chemistry." he says with a grin.

Laughing softly, "Now are you bringing books to this study session or winging it?"

"Ha ha very funny. I like her, Supafly."

"Soo..just friends, dating, boyfriend and girlfriend. Give me something here." _'Cause I'm seconds away from running a background check on her...damn as bad as dad._

"She's my girl." he tells her with a smile.

"As long as she makes you happy, I'll be nice." she says with a grin.

"Thank you." he says with a grin.

* * *

Knowing that Wallace was spending the afternoon 'studying' with Jackie, she tries calling Weevil.

"Hey, you doing anything for the next hour or so?" she asks when he answers.

"Nope."

"Think you could help me with something. I can pay you." she says.

"Where?" he asks. She tells him where to meet her.

Weevil is already there when she shows up.

"Damn, mama. What am I helping you with?" he asks his eyes undressing her. She was dressed in a shorter skirt than she normally wears, a white tank under a red sweater shrug, red fishnets and boots.

"Seeing if this guy takes the bait. Fiancee wants to know if he is a cheater." she explains putting a mic on. "Just need you to listen and record." she tells him handing him a recorder.

"If he don't take the bait...he's either in love with this chick or gay. Trust me." he says as his eyes roam over her body once again.

"Go." she says with a smile. She pretends to have a flat tire and goes to Collin's house to get him to help her. She attempts to seduce Collin, while he tapes, only to get turned down. Thinking on her feet, she convinces him to let her inside the house so that she can check his computer. She tries to seduce him once again, but he denies her advances. She copies all of Collin's files onto a hard drive, and Collin tells her that this is not his house-he is house-sitting for Nicolas Cage.

Weevil knocks on the door when he feels that she has been in there too long. Luckily the download finishes while he pretends to be an annoyed overprotective boyfriend.

"Get what you need." he asks when they are a little bit away.

"I think so." she says reaching into her bag and pulling out her keys.

"So, do you own this stuff?" he asks once again looking her up and down.

"Yeah." she asks.

"I need to do something please don't kill me." he says getting close.

"What...?" she's cut off as he pulls her against him and lowers his mouth on hers. She whimpers and opens her mouth just enough for him to slip in his tongue.

After what feels like hours but was more than likely just a minute he raises his head.

"You...why...huh?" she says breathlessly. _I think my brain just fizzed out._

Licking his lips, "Needed too."

"What?"

"You and I circle each other, have for a while now. One of us needed to make a move and I knew it had to be me." he says brushing his mouth against her lips once more before moving away from her. "Let me know when you figure out if you want to explore this." he says getting on his bike and leaving her standing there.

* * *

Somehow, she makes it back home and quickly changes before heading back to the office. Trying to ignore that little voice, which sounds a hell of a lot like Lilly, telling her to call Weevil and find out what they could be.

She calls Julie to meet her at the office.

She is in the middle of letting Julie know Collin isn't a cheater and that the house he is in isn't his but Nicolas Cage's when her dad walks in.

And he is pissed. Julie leaves them trying not to break down.

"Dad..."

"Stop."

"Sorry."

"For taking the case or me finding out you went behind my back?"

"Both." she tries to joke. "Trying to save for college, what she wanted to spend was nuts to pass up. I thought that I could handle it." she tries to justify as she heads to her desk.

"Believe it or not, kiddo. At eighteen, you can't handle and get away with it all."

She turns and looks at him in confusion.

"Whether it's doing cases behind my back or tutoring known criminals in our living room or dating them."

She loses her breath and sinks into her chair.

"You should know that you can't hide things from me." he says as he enters his office and shuts the door.

_Does that mean he's for or against it..._

* * *

**A Couple Hours Later**

She working on her homework when her dad enters her room.

"Alright, so I might need your help in the office." he says sheepishly.

"Really?" she asks shocked.

He just stares at her.

"Am I ever going to know what changed your mind?" she asks tilting her head at him.

"Nope. I'm just asking for help with the filing, research, phone, stuff like that...and you're still keeping your job at the Hut."

She raises her hands in acceptance. "Umm, dad?"

He stops mid turn.

"That comment about dating...?" she stands up trying to figure it out.

"What about it?" he asks narrowing his eyes at her.

She looks down unsure how to ask.

"As long as Eli treats you the way you should be treated. I'll be okay with studying and dating. Just remember, he is the leader of a motorcycle gang." without another word he leaves her alone.

Biting her lip, she turns back to her laptop. _Speaking of Weevil, this is a good a time as any to check out his mystery tipster._

She types in the info into one of her sites.

_Maybe Curly was part of a plot to go after Cervando, doubt it but if he owed the Fitzpatricks money... The call could have come from anywhere..._

Her internal trying to rationalize this comes to a screeching halt when the pages loads.

_Number belongs to one Aaron Echolls. Son of a bitch._

"You hate me don't you." she mutters under her breath and looks upwards.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

She waits for Logan to come into the courtyard.

"Alright...I can't take the begging. One time but there will be zero cuddling and I won't call you the next day." he tells her looking innocent as can be.

"Ha...September twenty-fourth. Someone used one of your phones to call Weevil and let him know that Curly Moran was behind the car crash. The same Curly that's friends with your dad. Any comment?"

"My day is complete. Veronica Mars has accused me of evil." he says twirling an imaginary mustache. "Let's see, any comment. Yes, who the hell is Curly Moran and what makes you think my dad know him?"

"Stunt-coordinator for _The Long Haul_ which starred your dad and a signed photo pf the two of them. September twenty-fourth?" she asks getting annoyed.

"How am I suppose...wait, that was the night of my Life's Short party." he says reaching into his bag and pulling out a flyer.

"Only you would throw a party after our classmates plummet to their death." she snarks.

"It was in their honor. Besides it wasn't just your social betters, your boy Weevil and his boys crashed it." he said starting to walk off.

"Which line did this number come from?" she asks holding out the number.

Turning, he barely glances at the paper. "I have like five lines in my house, you expect me to know them all." he scoffs before walking off.

_Why did I date you? I can barely stand you right now._

* * *

**The Next Day**

She quickly sneaks into class, luckily Mr. Wu has his backed turned so he doesn't notice her slipping into her seat next to Wallace.

"Mars to Wallace...you in there?" she jokes when he doesn't acknowledge her. "You doing okay?"

He doesn't answer just shakes his head.

"Okay people. Can I have your attention?"

The class quiets down as Mr. Wu turns and faces them.

"Homecoming season is upon us."

_Like a plague. That wonderful time of the year where the popular vote for their own and act surprised when they are chosen. And every girl waits for that special boy to ask her to go._

"Each homeroom will be nominating one boy and one girl. The top five from each class will be this years royal court. The king and queen will be announced on Friday at the dance. Floor is open for nominations." he says spreading his hands.

"Don't kill be but I think you need some Pirate love." she whispers to Wallace before raising her hand.

"Veronica?"

"I'd like to nominate Wallace Fennel." she says cheerfully.

Wallace just looks at her in disbelief as the rest of the class echoes her suggestion.

* * *

"Hey, what's going on?" she asks as Wallace sits down with her.

"Just got a extreme shock. My dad showed up this morning."

"Wait..what?" she exclaims. _Last I knew your dad died..._

"Yeah, add that by ten and you know how I feel. My dad wasn't my dad." he says looking upset.

"I don't know what to say. Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure. My whole life..V...my mom has been keeping this from me."

"Did she give you a reason?"

"Yeah but I don't know what to think.."

"Do you want me to look into him, make sure there was a reason why she kept you from him."

"I'm not sure. Do you think we can keep this between you and me for now?"

"Of course." she is about to say more when Jackie appears.

None of them speak.

Glaring at them, Jackie stalks off.

"I need to go deal with that." he says getting up and chases after her.

She opens her notebook and ties to study, trying not to think about what her best friend is dealing with or the fact that she hasn't figured out what she wants to say to Weevil.

* * *

"Ummm, what is that smell?" she asks walking into the office to work on the filing before Weevil showed up for tutoring.

"A friend from sanitation called, one of his crews found those in a dumpster." he tells her pointing to a pile of posters.

She shakes her head and heads to her desk, grabbing the pile of files.

"So according to Woody's number guys, I'm ahead by twelve points. so lamb tossing my campaign posters in the trash doesn't bug me. Unlike him, I don't need to sling mud. So, what time is Eli getting here?"

"How..." she shakes her head laughing softly. "In an hour or so."

"Okay...don't be home late and um... let me know what happens." he says leaving, grabbing the pile of posters on his way.

She finishing up the filing when he gets there.

"So...we gonna talk about it or what?" he asks leaning against the door fame not quite entering the office.

"You mean you kissing me brainless." she says.

"Brainless. That's new." he says with a smirk moving away from the door and sitting down on the couch.

"How would this work?" she asks moving around the desk and sitting down next to him on the couch.

"The same way any couple does. We hang out, date, make out and..."

"No.." she ask biting her lips 'cause that sounds like a good plan to her. "Do we let everyone know that we're together 'cause I really don't want this to be secret."

"You want everyone to know that we're together." he says, a little surprised, taking her hand in his, entwining their fingers together.

"You don't?" she asks softly.

"I don't care if your dad and Wallace know but it would be nice to have some time for us to get use to being together before we announce it to everyone else."

"You don't want you boys to know that you are with me." she says staring at him and moving closer until she is pressed against his side. He lets go of her hand and wraps his arm loosely around he waist resting his hand on her hip.

"I'm the leader of a biker gang, V. I would rather not give those wanting to destroy me ammo by going after you. Sides how do you think it would look for your dad if it's known that we are together. Lamb would have a field day with that."

"So you want to stay secret to protect me and my dad...I can get behind that but the instant the election is over. I want a full make out session in the quad during lunch or in the parking lot that morning. I want everyone to know that I'm proud to be yours."

"That's one promise I will make happen." he says pulling her closer and moving her face towards his, covering her mouth for a full on kiss. She smiles against his mouth, happy.

* * *

Walking into the apartment a few hours later she's not surprised to see her dad, standing in the kitchen.

"So, what's the verdict?" he asks noticing that she hasn't stopped smiling.

"We're dating...but we're going to keep it to ourselves until after the election. He doesn't want Lamb to use us together against you." she tells him sitting down.

"His idea?" he asks a little shocked and proud.

"Yeah...he doesn't want anyone to use me against him either. The instant you are announced Sheriff though is another story." she says with a smile knowing that he would be Sheriff.

"So...when is he coming over for the 'meet the parent' dinner?" he says with a gleeful smile.

She just starts laughing.

* * *

**The Next Day**

She's reapplying her lip balm, since Weevil had kissed all of it off before he left when Jackie stalks in. _Good thing she didn't show up five minutes ago._

"What's going on with my boyfriend?" Jackie asks accusingly.

"He hasn't talked to you yet." she asks cursing stubborn male pride.

"No. Veronica, I know we don't get along..."

"It's family stuff. I promised him I would keep it between us. Just give him some time to figure things out." she says honestly.

"Okay..that wasn't the only reason I wanted to talk to you. Some stole my credit card and maxed it out."

"If you call the company they can erase the charges." she says putting her lip balm back into her bag.

"I did that...It's just that..."

"What is it?"

"My friend Cora..she borrows my stuff all the time. It doesn't bug me but I noticed my card was gone after the two of us went shopping. Yesterday, I found it in my car as it just magically reappeared. I don't want to accuse Cora but..."

"You want me to find out if she did steal it?" she asks.

"I'd like to find proof that she didn't. She was my first friend here next to Wallace. I printed out a list of the charges." she says handing her a print-off.

"Leather jacket, vanilla scented candles, iTunes, make up. So she hit every store at the Galleria." she says looking over the list. "Any clue what Consolidated Elemental Industries is?"

"No."

"Alright, first things first, we need to see if Cora has any of this stuff." she tells her, grabbing her bag and the two of them head to class.

* * *

Wallace is shocked when his name is called for the nominating pool for homecoming royalty.

"Okay how many people did you have to bribe with snicker-doodles?" he asks turning to her.

"Not as many as you seem to think. The people have spoken." she says with a grin as he leans back in his seat, a huge smile on his face.

* * *

She talks to Cora and the two plan a trip to shop for homecoming dresses at an outlet mall after her dad's debate since she is taking photos.

She hopes by getting access to her house, she can see if Cora has any of the things that were bought with Jackie's card.

_So Homecoming dress..but no date. Oh well, show up to support Wallace then sneak out maybe see if Weevil wants to come over and watch some old horror movies about proms and homecomings._

* * *

She tries not to notice that Duncan and Logan are actually talking or that Meg keeps looking back at her with a guilty face while she is walking to her car with Jackie.

"Does this mean that's she's the thief since she had the jacket?"

"Well she did say that she got it at an outlet store. Let me make sure first. I don't want you to lose a friend over a false accusation. Trust me it sucks." she says just as Meg happens to look back, clearly having heard her.

"Alright." Jackie says when the hit her car and the break off.

* * *

**The Debate**

Lamb is in full mode of hot air. Including bringing up that years ago her dad let Ed Doyle go even though he pulled him over for drunk driving. Even going as far to say that if he had charged him, the school wouldn't have hired him.

Which, of course causes, everyone to react.

She glares at Lamb as her dad falters.

_You are going down you son of a bitch._

* * *

She and Cora go outlet shopping.

It becomes clear that she could not have stolen the card.

_Back to square one, dammit._

* * *

"Hey." She says picking up the phone.

"Lamb is a real piece of work." Weevil tells her.

"I know." she says laying back on her bed. "I think...I hate Lamb. The crash wasn't even Ed's fault, he was planning on meeting his mistress afterward."

"V...Don't worry. People know that your dad is ten times better than Lamb."

"I hope so."

"So...I was wondering what are our plans for this weekend?" he asks.

"Well, I was going to do a drop by at Homecoming...just to support Wallace. Maybe afterwards we can get together and spend the rest of the night watching eighties horror movies." she says biting her lip.

"That sounds like a plan...Ahh, how would you feel if I went with you to Homecoming?"

"I'd like it a lot but..."

"I've already mentioned that I might do a pop-by to a few of my boys. I don't think they would think anything of it if we showed up together."

"Meaning you picking me up on..."

"Angel is letting me borrow his car."

"Just bring a change of clothes so you can be comfy afterwards."

"So you want to cuddle and get me out of my clothes, _querida_." he whispers softly.

"Maybe." she says blushing and hanging up.

* * *

**The Next Day**

After the debate her dad loses his lead in the Sheriff's race.

Annoyed she sends a listening device to Lamb's office.

* * *

"I don't know...She made him out to be some kind of psychopath." Wallace tells her as they stand at their lockers. "I mean, if he's so nuts how has he been able to stay on the police force all these years?"

"Okay but if he's a cop, why did it take him so long to find you. As bad as it sounds, the one that sticks around is the one who cares." she says closing her locker. "But that's just me."

"I don't know what to think anymore." he mutters loud enough for her to hear before walking off.

_Figure out best friend's girlfriend problem then help best friend with his._

* * *

She goes to find the first place the credit card was spent. Turns out to be a psychic shop and she finds the candles that has been bought with Jackie's card.

* * *

"I just wish I knew how she got a hold of your card." she says scratching Backup's head since he is lying down next to her.

"From me." Jackie says turning to face her on the floor.

"Really?"

"My gram passed away a few years ago and even someone pretending to be her, telling me that everything is going to be okay, makes me feel better."

"I can see that."

"Don't tell anyone okay. It's my secret. I'm sure you have a few."

She bites her lip, _Dammit...I need to talk about it with someone and maybe it will help her see that I'm not out to mess with her relationship._

"I got a good one." she says sitting up.

"Do tell."

"Weevil and I...we're trying..." she just starts giggling and smiling.

"You're with him." Jackie says stunned.

Nodding, "We're going to Homecoming together. Everyone else will think it's just as friends." she says shrugging.

"Good kisser?"

"Logan and Duncan are the only ones I have to by. Amazing."

"Oh...I know how to get back at her. I'll go on her show."

"She has a show."

Jackie gets up and heads to the living room, she follows. She turns on the TV and puts it on the right channel just as 'Answers from Angels' starts.

"Everyone in school watches it." Jackie says shrugging.

Before Jackie leaves, the two come up with a plan for getting even with madame Sophie.

* * *

She sits down at her laptop and downloads the file form the bug she had sent to Lamb.

Veronica enters her bedroom. She heads straight for her desk and the laptop.

_**"Mr. Cook." ~ Lamb** _

_**"Sheriff." ~ Terrence** _

_**"I was thinking that you should buy some tickets to our annual fundraiser. Ten bucks a pop." ~ Lamb** _

_**"Did you seriously call me down here to hit me up for a donation. Put me down for two." ~ Terrence** _

_**"I was thinking more lie a thousand tickets and that you could MC the bachelor auction." ~ Lamb** _

_**"That's a lot of money, Sheriff." ~ Terrence** _

_**"Ten thousand if my math is correct. I mean, it's not like it's three million. A debt like that someone might send someone to your nice house to remind you of it." ~ Lamb** _

_**"Point, Sheriff?" ~ Terrence** _

_**"I think I made it. I got a guy in holding who likes to talk. Told me that you did favors for someone who bet on baseball."** _

"Why do you hate me?!" she calls out.

* * *

**Next Day**

She talks to Michelle, the girl that was on Madame Sophie's show. She's able to figure out how to get on the show. Michelle lets her listen to a voicemail that her friend, Rhonda left her.

She forwards the message to her answering machine.

* * *

She goes on the show and isn't surprised when she is called up.

What does shock her is the message the psychic has from Lilly.

"She says you should have stayed away from her boyfriend. Both of them."

_No killing, maiming but no killing...Dammit why do I have such bad luck with female friends_

* * *

She's sitting at her desk when Wallace comes in.

Wallace goes to see her.

"Supafly, you okay?"

Keeping her anger in check, "Yeah..I.. Listen, Wallace, I'm okay." _I'm not going to add that everything you know is a lie by having your best friend and girlfriend at each others throats. She and I will talk at a later time_

"So...you're seeing someone?"

"Kinda...how many people watch that show?"

"Most of the school but I doubt that anyone is gonna clue in that you're dating anyone. Everyone knows that Logan and Weevil were only two of Lilly's exs."

"Guess that will give them someone to talk about when Weevil and I show up at the dance together, huh?"

Wallace just starts laughing. "Need to go get ready and collect my woman." he says smiling, he gives her one more hug before heading out.

_Not getting revenge...hard but for Wallace, I'll give her one freebie._

* * *

"Wow, kiddo you look beautiful." her dad say when she comes into the living room. She wearing a black halter syle dress that stops just at her knees. She's slipping a grey knit shrug on.

"I have something that you need to hear."

She plays him the message before the bus crash and both hear the explosion.

"Dad, you need to win. Lamb is not going to solve this."

"I know honey I know." He's about to ask something else when there is a knock on the door.

"Eli." he says opening the door to find Eli Navarro, in dress-pants, a button-down shirt, tie and his leather jacket.

"Sheriff." he says unsure if he should stay there or come in.

"Veronica, it seems you have a gentleman caller." he says over his shoulder. "Gentleman, right?" he says just loud enough for Weevil to hear.

"Yes, sir."

He moves aside so that Weevil can come in. "You're not riding your bike tonight?"

"My uncle Angel is letting me borrow his car." he says.

"Don't worry, we'll be back in a little bit. Mostly going to support Wallace." she says collecting her clutch purse.

"Tell Wallace I'm pullin' for him."

She smiles and the two of them head off.

* * *

**Homecoming**

"I haven't seen Wallace or Jackie anywhere." she says slow dancing with Weevil. No one had seemed surprised or questioned why they had showed up together.

"Maybe their off hiding in a dark corner, making out. That's where I would like to be." he whispers the last part causing her to smile.

"If neither of us see him in the next fifteen minutes, you want to head out?" she asks when he pulls her as close as he dares with some many people around.

"I've been ready to go since we got here."

She looks around and is in utter shock when she sees Jackie trying to kiss Logan.

"I hate my karma." she mutters breaking away from Weevil and tries to get to Jackie quickly, praying that Wallace is no where to be seen. Weevil right behind her.

"Jackie!" she calls when she gets to them pulling Jackie off Logan. She turns Jackie to look at her and is stunned to see that Jackie looks stoned. "What are you doing?" she says just loud enough for them to hear.

"He dumped me. How many guys do you need?" Jackie slurs. "God forbid, someone have a bad opinion of you."

"What?! Jackie..." she notices Wallace over her shoulder. He shakes his head and walks off.

Weevil places a hand on her back before heading after Wallace for her.

"Jackie, I had nothing to do with the two of you breaking up. I didn't tell him, he didn't know that you knew about us."

"Why did he dump me?" she says starting to cry. She moves her to a table, making her sit down. "Go away, Logan." she says not bothering to look at him.

"Jackie?" Cora says joining them. "What happened?" she asks.

"Wallace and her broke up, I don't know what's going on?" she moves Cora away from the table for a moment. "I think she's on something. I can take her back to my place..."

"My date is being a jerk. I'll have her stay with me over the weekend."

she nods and lets Cora handle Jackie. She heads to find Weevil, hoping her found Wallace. She finds him outside at the car.

"Any luck?" she asks.

"No. He got out here first." he says shrugging. "Give him a call in the morning, let him cool off."

"Okay. Ready to go?"

He nods as they get in the car.

* * *

"I'm heading to bed." her dad says as she's about to start the third movie.

"Night dad." she says sitting down next to Weevil.

The instant they had gotten back from the dance, both of them had changed. Her dad was unsure about Weevil sitting in his living room in sweats and a beater while she was in yoga pants and a tank top.

"Night Sheriff." Weevil says putting his arm around her as she cuddled into his side.

"You heading out after this movie?" he asks.

"Dad..."

"It's okay, V. Yeah, I'll head home after this one."

He nods and heads into his room.

She waits until the door is shut before pulling his head down and kissing him.

"What was that for? Not that I minded." he asks.

"Understanding that my dad is still unsure about us and agreeing to leave when he wants you too."

"I respect your dad, V. Now lets watch the movie before I forget that I am on my best behavior right now." he mutters kissing her neck softly.

* * *

She is getting herself a bowl of cereal when her dad comes in.

"Dad? Where have you been?"

"Wallace didn't come home after the dance. Did you see him last night?"

"Only for a moment." she says going into her bedroom and grabs her cellphone. She dials Wallace but it goes straight to voicemail.

"Wallace...Call me please...I don't think I can handle losing another friend."


	4. Chapter 4

_You know less than a week ago, I figured this night would go differently. Dad would win by a landslid than Wallace and I would sneak some champagne before prank calling Lamb and after Weevil would come over and everyone would know that we were together._

She looks around the room as everyone waits with baited breath watching the TV. Cliff sits with him, downing his drink.

_Instead I am watching a nail-bitter race, Wallace is off with his dad in Chicago trying to find himself barely responding to my numerous emails and I'm meeting Weevil at the office just to spend time with him, hoping that we can let everyone know soon that we're together._

"Don't worry everyone. There is still twenty minutes." he dad says to the crowded room. He leans to her and whispers, "We can still get a straggler vote."

"Um, you're out of weenies and I'm out of cocktail." Cliff says holding up his empty glass. "Anything works."

She grabs the glass and heads into the kitchen.

**"Latest results show that Don Lamb is ahead by a percent." ~ News Anchor**

"Whatever you find, make it a double." Cliff mutters.

_Gladly.._

**"It's official. Woody Goodman is the Mayor of Neptune and we are calling the sheriff's race...Don Lamb holds his seat in what was a nail-biter race." ~ News Anchor**

The sounds of groans and moans fill the room.

_It's official ...Life Sucks._

"We'll get 'em next time." he dad says. "Thanks for all the work."

Slowly everyone starts to leave until it's just her, dad and Cliff.

"Well on the bright side, forty-nine percent of Neptune likes you." Cliff says trying to lighten the mood.

Her dad laughs sligtly.

"It wasn't even a contest until Lamb used you as a scapegoat for the crash. I could have easily leaked that tape of the explosion." she tells him.

"No, kiddo. Keeping out of the public was the best thing for the investigation."

"No, the best thing would have been someone knowing what the hell they are doing in charge." she mutters.

"It's done kiddo. Go spend some time with your boyfriend." he says trying to shoo her out of the apartment.

"Boyfriend?" Cliff asks confused.

"Yeah, we were keeping it quiet due to the election. You'll know soon enough." she says with a smile grabbing her bag and heading out.

* * *

"Hey, you waiting for me?" she calls out seeing Weevil waiting on his bike.

"Possible. You look like my girlfriend. Sound like my girlfriend. Feel like my girlfriend." he says pulling her close. "And you smell like her. Yeah, I'm waiting on you." he says with a grin before placing a soft kiss on her neck.

"Come on." she says pulling him into the building.

"Sorry he didn't win. Everyone in my house voted for him." he says following her.

She smiled softly. They turn down the hallway leading to the office and find someone next to the door.

"Hey!" Weevil says putting himself in front of her.

"Veronica Mars." Abel Koontz says standing.

"Abel Koontz?" she and Weevil says surprised.

"I need your help." Koontz says trying to walk forward but wobbling. weevil moves forward before he falls flat on his face.

"Let's get him inside." she says unlocking the office.

"Amelia, my daughter..she's missing. I need to find her before I die." Koontz says.

Luckily, Weevil talked her out of setting up a surprise for her dad, so they headed right in and Weevil helped Koontz to the small couch.

"She signed the settlement papers with Kane last spring."

"And how much is the going rate for taking the fall?" she snarks, grabbing the phone book.

"Three million."

Weevil whistles and she rolls her eyes, sitting done on the arm of the couch.

"I need you to find her." Koontz begs.

"Why should she help you?" Weevil asks placing a hand on her lower back as he moves to stand behind her.

"I'm begging, please. I missed her twenty first birthday..I doubt that I will make it to her next one." Koontz pleads, tears staring to form.

She grabs the phone and starts dialing.

"What are you doing?" Koontz asks confused.

She doesn't respond to him, just waits for who she called to pick up, "Hi..I need to bring someone in, where is you ER entrance?"

"I don't care about me, please find my daughter?!" Koontz responds.

"I'll look for her, one since you begged and two, only if you check into the hospital. There's no point in my looking for her if you haven't made sure that you're around long enough for me to find her."

Koontz nods, agreeing.

"Help me get him there?" she asks looking up at Weevil. He nods and drops a kiss on the side of her neck and moves to help Koontz to his feet.

* * *

A few hours later, she gets off the bike and heads to find Amelia's boyfriend. Since all other routes were bringing up nada. Weevil watches her run across the campus from the bike, narrowing his eyes when he notices more than one guy check out her ass. It was taking everything in him not to go wrap his arms around her waist and claim her as his.

Feeling eyes on her, she turns to see her boyfriend staring at half the guys that she had passed, laughing she turns and heads back to him.

"Do you want to come with me?" she asks as she slips her arms under his jacket and rest them at his lower back.

"Nay, I'm just the ride." he says his eyes hidden behind his glasses.

Lifting herself on her toes, she brushes a kiss on his mouth. She smiles against his mouth when she feels his hands slips over her hips and cup her ass, pulling her closer.

Laughing softly she moves away, "Better."

"Much. Go. Work." he says smirking as she walks off. This time not one guy dares to look at her, just stare at him. _Yeah, mine don't forget it._

* * *

She leans against the desk as Mike, Amelia's boyfriend, grabs a bottle of water out of his fridge.

"Sorry, I can't help you. The last time I saw her was in Ibiza."

"Seriously?" she asks a little surprised.

"Yup. She showed up after finals and says 'I just got a ton of money'. Next thing I know, we're in Europe. Ended up in Ibiza. It was amazing. I mean we went to the beach every day, went to cool parties."

"I'm sensing a but here..."

"Yeah, one night we're at this club where they drop foam on you at midnight. We're there, hangin' out. Foam drops and she's gone. I had to call my parents to fly me home."

"And...you're not worried?" she asks knowing that if she was at a party with someone and they disappeared, she would search high and low for them.

"She ditched me. The girl's got three million to keep her warms at night. If she's really in trouble, she took all my phone cards, so she could call me if she needed to."

"Those cards...you by any chance write those numbers down anywhere?" she asks.

Mike nods and points to a folder on his desk.

"Thanks." she says copying the numbers before she heads out.

* * *

On her laptop, sitting on Weevil's bed since he is watching Ophelia, she starts a post on Ibiza forum.

"What you doing?" Ophelia asks looking up at her from her coloring book.

"Trying to find a friend." she tells her as she types. _Missing Friend. Amelia. Looking for Amelia, last seen in Ibiza in August. Father ill. Please IM with any info._ and attaches photo of Amelia.

"Will that work?" Weevil ask sitting down next to her.

She doesn't answer just picks up the copy of the phone card numbers that Amelia took from Mike.

"Maybe." she says digging into her bag and grabs her phone. She dials and waits for him to pick up.

**_"It's Cliff."_ **

"Cliffy. Need a quick favor." she says with a smile. Weevil leans against the wall of his bed and without asking moves her so that she is sitting between his legs.

**_"No can do. I'm in the middle..."_ **

"Cliff, you owe me." she says leaning back so that he can wrap his arms around her waist. Ophelia smiles watching them and goes back to coloring.

**_"I owe you? Who unconfiscated all your fake college IDs?"_ **

"Who got your car out of your ex's name?"

Weevil smirks as he listens to her work.

"And proved that stripper was colour-blind?"

_**"Okay, who am I calling and what am I giving them?"** _

Smirking she grabs the paper, "World-Telecom. I texted you the number I need run. Nothing melts an operator's heart like an overwrought Fred MacMurray."

_**"Yeah, yeah."** _

* * *

"That was fast." she says when she sees that she has a new email. Opening it she starts reading.

_Tuscany...Florence...Lisbon...Ibiza..._ "Neptune?"

"She was in Neptune last week?" Weevil asks reading over her shoulder.

"How many calls only last two minutes?" she asks.

"Not sure." he mutters. He's about to say something else when his phone starts buzzing. He smiles looking at the message.

"What?"

"Witness came forward in Felix's murder. Echolls is in jail." he tells her dropping a kiss on her mouth.

She wants to be happy but is unsure about a witness coming forward after such a long time.

"But that is for another time, I need to get you home." he says reluctantly when he hears Letty come in the house.

Nodding she collects her stuff and follows him to the bike.

* * *

Unable to sleep, she sits at her laptop searching for the phone number that Amelia called from in Neptune.

She scoffs when the address the payphone is comes up. _Girl goes missing after taking cash from Kane Software, only to show up at the pay phone across the street from there months later before falling of the face of the earth._

Grabbing her phone, she sends Weevil a text that she's going to be a little late tomorrow.

_Dammit I wanted to show everyone that we're together._

* * *

Clarence Wiedman walks into his office to find her sitting behind his desk.

"Remind me, what are you the head of again? I would have thought covering up Lilly's murder would have snagged you a better office."

"What are you doing here?" he stalks in towards her.

"Any idea where Amelia DeLongpre is?" she asks leaning back in his chair, crossing her arms.

"Last time I saw her you were hiding her."

"That's funny because she made a call from across the street."

"She didn't speak to me. I have to get back to work." he reaches his desk and goes to reach for his phone, more than likely to call someone to escort her out.

"Don't worry, I can show myself out." she stalks out of the room.

* * *

"It's awesome, we gotta go." Dick says to Duncan and Meg as Weevil and a few of his boys come up to them.

"Yeah, bro..but make sure to bring cigarettes and toiler paper, that shit is gold."

The three of them look at him in confusion.

"You were talking about visiting your little buddy Logan in jail, right?"

Looking lost, "We were talkin' about Senor Shrimp." Dick says.

Meg moves closer to Duncan, worry on her face.

"Now that they got a witness to your boy killin' Felix you might want to go visit him. Jail can be scary for such a...easy guy."

"Did I miss something? It's a crime to kill a Mexican?" Dick asks confused.

Thumper comes forward to go after Dick just as Veronica steps between the PCHers and 09ers.

"Duncan please get your pet out of here or Weevil's boy is gonna kill 'em." she says standing next to Weevil.

"Figures." Dick scoffs as Duncan and Meg lead him away.

"That boy needs an ass whoopin'. Might smarten him up."

She shakes her head and gives Weevil a head tilt. With a smile she gives him a quick kiss at his nod, causing all the boys with him to get wide eyes when she heads to class.

"Great." Thumper scoffs as they head in the other direction. "You're hooking up with Veronica Mars now."

"Yeah.. got a problem with it." he snarls.

Thumper gets out of answering when Hector joins them.

"What's up?" he asks seeing that Hector is upset.

"Logan made bail. Just walked out."

"Fuck, these white boys get away with everything. We shoulda done somethin' a long time ago." Thumper snarls.

Weevil glares a him to shut his mouth.

"He's right, man. Things are bein' said."

"Like what?" he growls.

"My little brother asked if it's true that PCH stands for Panty Club for Homos." Hector said.

"Looks like it's time we do somethin' about Logan Echolls." he says looking off in the direction that V and the 09ers had gone off in.

"Your girl gonna have a problem with that?" Thumper scoffs glancing the way V had gone.

"Leave V to me." he says.

* * *

"So you slumming it now?" Dick calls out as she gets near.

"Slumming it would mean dating you." she snarks passing by.

"Veronica, which is better Chasers or Senor Shrimp?" Meg calls out.

"For what?" she ask turning to look at them. "To watch a bunch of drunk sorority girls try to walk in a straight line."

Meg goes over to her in a somewhat truce trying to make up for the past few months. "Enbom is getting them new fake IDs." she says standing next to her.

"We talking again?" she asks slightly confused.

Meg nods hopeful. "I've been a bitch, please forgive me."

"I'll try." she says and thinking about the IDs, something clicks. "We'll talk later."

Meg nods as she watches her run off.

Pulling out her phone she calls Amelia's boyfriend. She finds out from him that Amelia had a fake ID with the name 'Margot Schnell'. In computer class, she logs onto _PryingEyez_ and finds out that 'Margot' rented a car nearby.

"Bingo." she says softly smiling.

* * *

Once school is over, she heads right for the Rental company. She charms the manager and is able to find out that Amelia rented a white Lesabre and it hasn't been returned. She heads out to the hallway and watches as the manager berates one of his coworkers.

_Usually two people pull this number but since my go to is AWOL and Weevil is with his boys, it's a one woman show._

Pretending to be distressed businesswoman, she waits until the manager leaves and goes right to the employee that he was berating.

"You need to help me." she says to the girl.

"What is the problem?"

"Well for starters my coworker is an unbearable Nazi, kinda like that guy." she says pointing at the managers photo on the wall. "I am have to do a presentation and crush him, unfortunately I left my laptop in my rental."

The employee asks her about the car and she gives her all the information that she had gotten out of the manager.

She looks it up and says it's rented out now.

She asks if there is anyway that they can get a hold of the person in the car.

After a little pleading, the girl gives in and gives her the GPS coordinates.

* * *

She heads to Amelia's previous location, which is in a small hotel. She knows she should have seen if Weevil could come with her but they just came out, not sure how it would look if she wedged into boy time.

The manager waves a sign that it's thirty dollars a night when she enters the office.

"I'm looking for someone." she starts.

"Unless you're looking for me, there isn't anybody around." the manager jokes.

"I'm looking for a friend." and she's him a photo of Amelia.

He recognizes her and says that she rented a room several days ago.

When she asks to be let into the room, he once again tells her that the rooms are thirty dollars a night.

Annoyed, she gives in and pays him.

* * *

_Confused, why a girl with millions of dollars would end up in a motel as shabby as this one._

As they search the room, her phone rings, making her jump.

_**"Where are you?"**_ her dad asks the instant she picks up.

"Ummm...An art gallery."

_**"Prove it."** _

"What?"

_**"Send me a photo that shows me that you are at an art gallery and than come home. We need to talk."** _

"Dad..."

_**"Is there a reason you never told me about Curly Moran."** _

She closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. "I didn't want you to worry. Trust me I've been doing enough for the both of us."

_**"About what?"** _

She tells him her theory that Aaron Echolls orchestrated the crash. That Curly was behind it and the crash was meant to kill her.

"I need to know the truth dad. The guilt would drive me crazy if I didn't."

_**"We'll talk when you get home. Send me that photo."**_ he says as he hangs up.

She arranges several paintings on one wall to imitate an art gallery, and takes a picture with her camera, which she then sends from laptop to her dad.

While sending she notices that her laptop's Bluetooth connection caught a signal from Amelia's Palm Pilot whose range is limited to thirty feet. She asks the manager if anyone is staying in the room next to hers. The manager once again points out the price for a room. Irritated, she once again pays 30 dollars.

Room 109 no Amelia, no Palm Pilot.

She asks about the other neighboring room; predictably, the manager expects yet another 30 dollars.

Room 111 no Amelia nor her Palm Pilot.

She looks around and notices a ice machine. She opens the hatch and digs through. Slowly she reveals a hand and hair.

She runs back to room 110 and she grabs her phone and starts to dial anyone.

Weidman rushes in to room and shuts the door.

"I though I told you to mind your own business."

She drops her phone onto the bed. "My dad knows where I am." she says shakily.

"Was it Amelia? In the machine?" Weidman asks.

"I..."

"I didn't tell you everything. I did talk to Amelia. She called and demanded another two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

"Why would she need more money?" she asks confused.

"I gave her the money in marked notes, after making her promise to disappear until the legal problems were settled. She left but the bills showed up here."

The two of them go back to the lobby to talk to the manager.

After some threatening from Weidman, he admits that Amelia was with a friend and describes Mike, Amelia ex, who claimed not to know where she was.

* * *

Sending Weevil a text that she was going to be missing most of school to find out about Amelia, she heads to Mike's dorm with Weidman.

**Be careful, see you tonight? ~ Weevil**

Smiling she tells him that she will and knocks on the door.

Mike opens the door and asks her what's going on just before Wiedman suddenly enters and stuffs a sock in his mouth. She protests, but Weidman pushes him out of his dorm room window and holds him by his shirt.

"You just said you were going to ask him questions." she says hysterically.

He interrogates Mike, asking him yes or no questions while dangling him. He asks if he's seen Amelia in the past two weeks and Mike shakes his head no. He asks him if he conspired with her to blackmail Kane Software and Mike shakes his head no again.

"He doesn't know anything and if he falls, he's going to break his neck." she says not as hysterical as she was.

He repeats the last question about conspiring to blackmail Kane Software and Mike vehemently shakes his head. He then asks him if he killed Amelia and Mike shakes his head.

As they walk away from Mike's room, she asks where he learned that interrogation technique.

He says Harvard and then asks where she learned her hysterical routine.

She replies that it's from watching cheerleading tryout results.

She asks him if he thinks Mike did it and he says that nobody's that good of a liar.

* * *

She gets back to school at lunch time to see her boyfriend and a few of his boys heading right for Logan.

_Shit..what happened?_

She rushes toward them.

"Hey!" Weevil yells at Logan. He slams a piece of paper on the table in front of Logan. "What the hell is this?" he snarls.

Logan smirks and picks it up. " _Esta_? _Una_?" turning to Dick, "What is their word for paper?"

"Uh..pay-pair-o." Dick says smirking.

"Okay..I'll translate. Just don't tell anyone I helped you cheat." he smirks at Weevil as she comes to stand next to him. "This is an eviction notice."

"You bought Letty's house." she asks in utter disdain that he would stoop that low.

"Yup, _Su casa_ is now _mi casa_. Seeing how my house burnt down I needed a new one."

"If you kick out my family.." he snarls. She places a hand on his arm, hoping to keep him from attacking Logan.

**"** Should have known you'd turn to _Paco_ here. You really enjoy Lilly's leftovers, don't you?" he smirks at her as he picks up his pizza.

He snaps and pulls from her and shoves it into Logan's face.

"Shit." she mutters as Dick and Logan get to their feet.

"I was enjoying that." Logan says with a twisted snarl on his face.

"Not as much as I'm going to enjoy this." he says with a dark smile.

She quickly gets out of the way as all the boys go after each other. She watches as teachers pull them apart.

"Break it up!" one of the teachers yells.

The teacher glares at both of them until Weevil storms off. His boys right behind him.

_Give him some space, if he needs me, he'll let me know._

With a glare at Logan, she leaves.

* * *

That night she lays on her bed, staring at her phone and laptop.

Weevil had texted asking if they could see each other another night, he wasn't in the right mind to have her around him. She had been upset but told him that if he changed his mind he was welcome to come over.

She finishes her email to Wallace about everything that has happened this week and sends it to him. She's about to close her laptop when someone named **enriqueFreaque69** asks to video chat.

She accepts and attaches her webcam.

"Are you Veronica?" a blonde with a thick accent asks.

"I saw your post. Is this the girl that you are looking for?" she asks sending a photo of Amelia in a group photo.

"Yeah...but um she's been found..."

"Did she finally get rid of that boyfriend of hers?"

"The guy next to her?" she asks looking at Mike.

"He seemed nice at first but I've never seen a guy lie right to your face and you would never know it."

She quickly puts the conversation on hold and calls the manager at the motel.

She forwards him the photo and he lets her know that the guy with Amelia wasn't Mike but the guy on the other side of her in the photo.

She checks with **Enriquefreaque69**. The other guy was the boyfriend.

She calls Weidman and tells him that the man who killed Amelia is Carlos Mercado.

He decides to track down Carlos, despite the fact that he is a diplomat's son.

Grabbing her stuff, she sends her dad and Weevil a message that she is going to the hospital to tell Koontz about Amelia.

Neither text her back.

* * *

She slowly walks to the nurses station.

_How the hell am I going to tell a dying man that his daughter is gone and the millions he sacrificed for led to her death._

"Excuse me?" she stops one of the nurses. "Abel Koontz? How is he doing?"

"A day, two if he's lucky." the nurse tells her.

"Thanks." she says softly looking at his door.

_The answer is...I don't._

"She's trying to get here as fast as possible, but there was an early snow so she's waiting for a helicopter." she says lying through her teeth to the man on his deathbed.

"But she's happy?" he rasps out.

"Backpacking the Himalayas isn't my idea of a fun time but she's enjoying it."

Koontz smiles softly and holds out his hand.

She takes it and slowly the guilt she feels fades.

_One more lie, to put his mind at ease, is worth it._

She sits down in the chair next to the bed as she waits for him to fall asleep.

A couple hours later she leaves the hospital and finds her boyfriend sitting on her car.

"Hi." she says softly when she gets to him.

"Hey." he says as she stands between his legs.

She tilts her head at him, "You okay?"

He laughs and shakes his head as he places his hands on her hips. "No but doing better. I'm just worried about _Abuela_ and Ophelia and..."

"I get it. So less pitchforks than I though there would be." she tries to joke.

"Hector and the others were not very surprised that I'm with you. Want to know if you have any more 'Get out of Jail' free cards left."

"Kinda sold my sold my soul to get the last one. Did you burn down Logan's house?" she asks already knowing the answer.

He nods.

"Want to come over and watch a movie or something?" she asks.

"That's it?" he asks confused as she moves so he can get off her car.

She leans forward and kisses him and he forgets how bad the day has been.

* * *

He turns off the TV, turning off the sound of _**The Big Lebowski**_ and clears his throat glaring at the couple entwined on his couch.

They ignore him so he clears his throat louder.

He notices a hand disappear.

"TIME TO GO HOME ELI!" he yells finally causing them to separate.

"Dad...when did you get home?" she asks breathlessly, pulling down her shirt as she stands up. Eli stands with his back to him but he knew that the boy was adjusting himself at least that's all he hoped he was doing. He narrowed his eyes at Veronica's jeans, which were unbuttoned. _Calming breaths, calming breaths..._

"Long enough to know that I need to have a little talk with Eli." he says when the boy finally turns to look at him. He narrows his eyes and takes in his appearance slowly. "Sit down, Eli."

"Ummm..." Veronica looks between them, a little afraid.

"Veronica, honey go to your room. We will be talking later." he says not talking his eyes off Eli.

"Dad, you can't kill him..We'd never the stains out of the carpet or the couch." she tries to joke as she reluctantly leaves the room.

"Love you too, V." he hears Eli say softly. He hides his smirk behind his hand about his daughters sense of humor.

"Sit, Eli." he says again as he sits down.

Swallowing, Eli sits down.

"Do we need to have the safe sex talk? Meaning you don't have sex with my daughter and I let you live." he says.

"Uhhhhh...what answers allows me to live and still be able to see V, Sheriff."

"I have no plans to have intercourse with your daughter, Mr. Mars. While I would love for you to say that and mean it, I know it's not going to happen."

"Sheriff..."

"Respect me, keep the make out sessions to the bedroom...with the door open or your house." he says glaring at the boy.

"Yes, sir. Tell V I'll see her tomorrow at school."

He nods as his daughter's boyfriend puts on his jacket and leaves.

"He still in one piece." she asks coming into the living room in her pajamas.

"Yes, said he would see you at school. Sam thing I told him. Respect me, I don't want to see you making out with your boyfriend, keep it to your room but the door has to be open if he's here alone with you or take it to his house. My only request...graduate before you make me a grandpa." he tries to joke, praying that it's a joke.

* * *

"What a difference a day can make." Mr. Pope says looking at the FBLA class as he walks the classroom.

"Last week, Miss Mars was flush with the younger Mr. Casablancas breathing down her neck...but the tide has turned." Mr. Pope says using his laser pointer to show that Beaver has gotten ahead of her.

"Boo-yah." Beaver says with a smirk.

"No one like an eager beaver." she says with a smile.

"Where are you?" Gia asks Dick.

"Yeah, where's Dick Inc?" he calls out.

Mr. Pope points to the very bottom of the graph. "I did tell you not to invest everything in one company. You took it upon yourself to put everything into Casablancas Realty."

Logan and Duncan's stocks are right there with him.

* * *

Noticing an 'Out of Order' sign on the girls bathroom, she enters, slightly confused.

"You, uh...remember when we made out against the sink with your legs wrapped around my waist?" Logan says leaning against said sink.

"Don't make me throw up." she says rolling her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Let's see, I was arrested..Tons of fun. This guy suddenly decided to come forward claiming to be the 911 caller. I thought you could do a little sleuthing for old times' sake."

"Seriously?" ignoring him she leaves the bathroom.

"Come on Ronnie...I'm begging here." Logan says following her into the empty hallway.

"Give me one good reason why I should help you." she says whipping around to face him.

"This guy is setting me up..."

"Still not hearing a reason to help you."

"If I go away for Felix's murder..his real killer gets off free and clear."

Letting out a frustrated sigh, "What's his name?"

"Veronica." Meg calls out, Duncan not far behind her.

"We need your help." Duncan says.

"What's going on?" she says looking at the two of them, she leads them into a empty classroom and shuts the door.

"I...My...God this is hard." Meg says tears in her eyes. Taking a deep breath she starts again. "I'm pregnant, again. I miscarried before the bus crash...that why I was so angry."

"Meg, sit down. What is going on?" she asks looking at Duncan for help.

"Meg's dad...he is a piece of work. He's been abusing her and her sisters." he says roughly.

"I've been emailing Child Protection Services, claiming that it was a kid I look after. I have proof but I don't think it's enough. Veronica, I'm scared what my dad will do if he finds out about the baby."

"How can I help?" _Might not be that close with Meg anymore but I still consider her a friend._

"We have to write in these books over and over again..'I was bad. I deserve to be punished'...stuff like that. It's all mental, there no physical proof that he does anything. God, he locks us in this room in Grace's closet for punishment. I was in there for days..no food or water once."

"My parents won't help, Celeste will flip and demand that Meg abort the baby..."

"Guys, I'll help."

"I was wondering if one day you could come over and take photos of that room and take one of the books and give it to your dad." Meg says wiping the tears out of her eyes.

She nods and reaches out and holds Meg's hand.

"Thank you." Meg rasps out.

* * *

"STDs will kill you." Mrs. Hauser says glaring at the girl in the front row when she starts sneezing. "Sexually transmitted diseases are no joke, Jane."

"I wasn't laughing, I sneezed." Jane tells her.

Mrs. Hauser scoffs and continues her lecture.

Unfortunately, Jane keeps sneezing.

"OUT!" Mrs. Hauser yells.

Jane quickly leaves the classroom.

"All right, people, pair up. You each have a piece of paper with an STD on it. You have to inform your partner that you have said STD."

She barely turns before Hector sits down next her.

"Really?" she asks looking at him in shock.

"I choose you over one of them." he says pointing at the fact that the entire class is 09ers.

Shrugging, she nods.

"Yeah, let's get the dried-up divorcée to teach us about sex." Dick says teaming up with Gia.

"I heard her husband left her for a man." Gia whispers loudly.

"And now we get bitchy and bitter for a year." Dick mutters.

Hector nods.

"Mrs. Hauser, mine's wrong. Isn't this a flower?" Gia calls out.

Mrs. Hauser glares at her before speaking, "Chlamydia is not a flower."

She and Hector do their best not to burst out laughing.

* * *

Sitting next to him in computer lab, she pushes over the papers to Logan.

"Tom Griffith, your 911 caller is a expensive and well respected plastic surgeon." she tells him.

Logan scoffs but starts looking through the file she gave him. "This isn't the guy." he says at last.

"Umm, this is Dr. Tom Griffith." she says pointing at the photo in the file.

"That's not the guy from the bridge." he whisper yells.

"You told me...the police that you couldn't identify the guy. That the whole night was a blur." she says coldly.

"I lied."

She scoffs, "Course you did."

"I didn't know what he would say. I didn't want him found."

When the bell rings she grabs her things and quickly gets away from him before she punches him.

"I need your help, the guy's lying!" he calls after her which she ignores.

* * *

She lays on the couch, Backup curled in her legs as her phone starts going off.

She doesn't bother to look at it, she knows it's Logan.

Growling, she grabs the phone when it starts ringing again.

"Fine..I'll look into it but if you call me again. I'll laugh as you are being dragged away to jail." she snarls at him before hanging up.

_Do I tell my boyfriend that I might have found a way to get my ex off for murder of his best friend. No, wait until I know more._

* * *

She sits outside Dr. Griffith's office, she debated going in to see him but she didn't want to chance him knowing who she was.

She follows him to a cigar shop. After waiting she goes inside but is unable to find him.

Looking around she notices him making a purchase and leaving, she sighs and follows.

* * *

"Hey kiddo." her dad says when she gets home a few hours later.

Taking off her jacket, she throws it onto a chair before laying down on the couch.

Her dad comes over, a plate of pizza in his hand. He places it on the table before grabbing her jacket and starts sniffing it.

"Do I need to leave the room?" she jokes.

"I know we had the talk about smoking, it was right after the brids and the bees but before drinking and driving."

"I remember that talk. It was one sentence, don't smoke."

"Explain." he says holding out her jacket.

"Oh, I went into a cigar shop to use the bathroom."

"On Ocean Avenue?"

She nods.

"Find other facilities next time, okay? That place is notorious for dealing drugs. I tried to bust 'em about twenty times when I was sheriff."

_Oh shit_

* * *

She gets to Meg's house and she lets her in.

"We only have a few hours." she says.

She follows her up to her bedroom. She points to the air vent.

"Duncan giving away Lilly's secrets." she says getting on a chair and opening the vent.

"He said it was his idea." Meg says with a smile.

She pulls out the journal and opens it. "The path to God is paved with righteousness..."

"My dad sucks." Meg says.

She nods in agreement. She follows Meg to Grace's room, opening the closet, she takes photos of the stack of journals, opening a few to show the same writing over and over.

Meg moves the clothes to show a sliding door behind them.

She takes photos. Nodding, Meg undoes the simple lock and opens the door. She kneels down and takes more photos. She's thankful that the closet is empty, she's not sure how she would have reacted if someone had been in there.

"This just in her room?" she ask looking up at Meg.

"Yeah." Meg says roughly.

Taking the journal and her camera, she follows Meg back downstairs. "Come with me. We can tell my dad together."

"I can't. If my dad figures out that I was behind this...I'm not eighteen yet."

"Okay. Call me if you need me."

Meg nods and she lets herself out.

* * *

She watches as her dad looks at the notebook and photos.

"Please tell me we can help them...Dad..Meg's pregnant. She afraid what her dad will do." she chokes out, tears in her eyes.

Nodding, her dad collect everything and leaves.

Pulling out her phone, she calls Weevil.

**"Hey, _mama_ what's up?"**

"How fast can you get here?" she says softly sitting down on the couch, pulling a pillow into her lap.

**"Minutes. What's up?"**

"Come over..please."

They hand up and less than fifteen minutes later he entering the apartment.

"What's wrong?" he asks seeing her tear streaked face.

"Many things." she nods to the files on the table.

Reaching down he picks up the information about Meg.

"Shit..." he mutters.

"She's pregnant." she mutters. "Again...she had a miscarriage a little bit before the crash."

"I know you're not close with her...but damn this sucks."

"And that's not all...Logan asked me to look into his witness. He was sure that this guy was framing him."

"V." he says sternly.

"I wanted to prove Logan wrong, that this guy was the witness and that Logan lied to me...Seems Hell has frozen over because Logan might be telling the truth." she scoffs.

"What do you mean?" he asks moving so that they are sitting down. She picks up the other folder and hands it to him.

"This is not the guy that Logan saw on the bridge. I followed him and he went to a known place for dealing."

"Where?" he asks place the folder back on the table and pulling her next to him.

"Cigar shop on Ocean Ave." she says leaning against him.

Since she is tracing the inside of his wrist she doesn't see his face go cold. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath before lifting her face to his, kissing her softly.

"Don't worry. We'll figure it out." he says as she cuddles into him. He rests his chin on the top of her head, planning.


	5. Chapter 5

She shifts uncomfortable in the bathroom, Logan glaring at her.

"I followed him into the cigar shop, he bought some cigars, and he left. Dad did say that it is a front for drug dealers, I'm not sure if that means anything or not."

"I'll be sure to remeber that when I'm looking at life in prison." he scoffs.

"Oh, it's jackass Logan. Must be a even-number day. I prefer the odd ones..you know when you're kissing my ass begging for my help." she snarls.

"You know what, you figure out why this dude is trying to get me sent away for killing Felix and it will always be an odd day, alright? Could this guy be selling prescription drugs. I know that how one of Aaron's many shrinks lost their license."

"It's easy to check." she says pulling her laptop out of her bag and turning it on. After a few moments and some searching she finds a site that will work.

"Got it." she says as Logan comes and stands next to her. "Well looks like Dr. Griffith was reprimanded for doing some inappropriate off-site practice...to a Danny Boyd." she tells him.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Logan mutters.

She shrugs wondering the same thing.

"What's that mean?"

"If you want to know, we'll go find out." she tells him powering down her laptop.

* * *

He closes his phone, leaning against his bike, a little annoyed that his girl has to work but since he knows its to look into the so-called witness, he's not a mad as he thought he would be. _Just wish she wasn't spending time with Echolls._

"Hey...you uh you got my stuff?" some 09er asks coming up to him. "Or do I need to take my business elsewhere?"

"What stuff?" he asks coldly standing up, glaring at the kid.

"I ordered an eight-ball." the 09er stammers under his glare.

"Coke? I never sold coke to you." he says grabbing the 09er by the shirt and ripping it open sure there was a wire.

"Hey...!" He lets him go. "Come on! Don't jerk me around. I paid one of you biker boys."

"Really? Describe him to me." he scoffs.

"Uhhh..he was...brown."

He shakes his head. "Leave." he snarls and the 09er scurries away from him.

_Which one of my boys is selling coke..and for who._

* * *

"This is the place." she says to Logan looking at the house.

"This place is a dump. You sure the owner could afford plastic surgery?" he says turning off the Xterra.

"Who knows." she says getting out of the car. "Stay here." she tells him when she notices that he opens his door.

"Veronica." he says looking at her like she is nuts.

"This is going to take a certain skill that you don't have. If you need someone's face pounded in, I'll send up a smoke signal."

Logan sits in the car and watches as some redneck answers the door when she knocks.

"Danny Boyd?"

"Who's asking?" the guy asks with a grin.

"I'm Laurie." she says with a head tilt, trying to look innocent and not throw up all over the guy when he leers at her. _Have sudden urge to shower worse than when I found out Dick kissed me._

"Oh." he says leering harder at her, "I don't need your name...you're eighteen, right?"

"Ummmm..."

"Like I care." he says trying to get closer.

It takes everything in her not to take a step back. She laughs, "The reason I'm here...I'm looking into Doctor Tom Griffith to do some surgery but I'm one of those types that needs to check my doctor out."

"The Doc. He's great but I would go too crazy. You don't need much done besides the obvious." he say pointing at her chest.

_No punching the neanderthal. No punching the neanderthal. No punching..._

"Yo're so sweet. Um, I noticed that he had a medical reprimand for doing a procedure on you and..."

"That got him into trouble?" he asks confused. "Follow me." He leads her around the back of the house, with one look at the Xterra she follows him into the back door of a building.

_Wonderful...I just walked into the River Stix, home of the Fighting Fitzpatricks._

"Check it out." Danny says pointing at a stain on a pool table. "That's my blood."

"What happened?" she asks nervously.

"Barfight. Forty-five stitches." he says pulling up his wife-beater to show her the scar.

"Griffith did that?" she asks swallowing the bile in her mouth.

"Yeah, didn't need to look pretty. Just stop the bleeding...Liam!" he yells stopping in his explanation.

"Thanks for the info..I should get going." she turns only to be stopped by Liam Fitzpatrick himself.

"Liam...what would you call the doc, a friend of the family?"

"Who's this?" Liam asks ignoring Danny.

"Her name's Laurie..." Liam glares at him and he stops talking.

"Laurie?! What are you doing here?" the girl behind the counter asks.

"Molly? You know her?" Liam asks not taking her eyes off her.

"She goes to my school." Molly says watching Veronica Mars silently say 'Thank you' with her eyes for not revealing who she really was.

"Leave." Liam says glaring at her.

"I'm gone." she says and quickly rushes out.

She doesn't once look back until she gets back into the Xterra.

"Get us out of here, NOW." she says leaning down to rest her head on her knees. Logan puts the car in gear and drives off.

"You okay?" he ask when she slowly breaks down.

_"_ No." she takes a deep breath before looking at him. "Your witness is a friend of the Fitzpatrick family."

"Fuck." he mutters.

"Yeah." she scoffs and looks out the window.

* * *

Once she enters the office, she finally lets out the breath she seems to have been holding since she got into the Xterra.

"Honey?!" he dad calls out. "Did you know a Marcos Oliveras?"

"Ummm...it doesn't sound familiar."

"He was on the bus." he says coming out of his office.

"Oh." she says softly. "What about him?"

"His parents just hired me. They are in the process of suing the school district for negligence and since they filed the suit, they have been harasses."

"How?"

"Toy buses have been left in their house, they come home to it smelling like their son's cologne and messages from their son on their machine."

"Okay, what do you need me to do?" she asks.

"Could you ask around about the kid? If I knew more about him it might help me figure out who could be doing this. Cause this seems to personal for the school to be doing it."

"No problem." she says.

* * *

"Hey." she says softly answering her phone.

"So what's going on?" Weevil asks.

"The witness...he's a friend of the Fitzpatrick family."

"How the hell do you know that?" he growled into the phone.

"Seems the good doctor did some work on a Danny Boyd. I went to talk to him... get some information on the doctor. Griffith fixed him up after a bar fight at the River Stix, which Danny brought me into to show me the bloodstain on the pool table."

"SHIT! V..baby are you okay?"

"Yeah..Molly covered for me. They didn't know who I was. I got out as fast as I could."

"Why the hell would the Fitzpatricks be setting up Echolls for Felix's murder? Also why would Molly Fitzpatrick cover for you?" he asks annoyed.

"I don't know.." she says softly.

* * *

She heads to school with a copy of Marcos schedule that her dad gave her. Unfortunately no one is able to tell her anything about him.

"You're asking about Marcos Olveres?" a guy asks coming up to her after she leaves the last classroom.

"Yeah..Ryan, right?" she asks thinking the guy looks familiar from one of her other classes.

Ryan nods, "Marcos never really said anything to anyone. He just kind of goofed off and kept to himself." he tells her before walking off.

* * *

She sits in the office with a yearbook opened on her lap.

_Marcos Oliveres...Not Pictured..._

She closes the book and turns to her computer when a ping tells her that she has mail. The weird thing is she doesn't know who it is from and the subject line is blank. Debating with herself, she clicks it open.

"I heard you're doing an article about Marcos. I figure you probably didn't get much information, so I wanted to send a note so at least you had one thing to quote. Marcos was great. Kinda shy, but really interesting once you got to know him. Sorry not to sign this, but I've got a jealous boyfriend who knew I liked him..." she says softly reading the email out loud.

"Guess what I found?!" her dad says coming into the office.

"I give..what?"

"An mp3 player taped under Mrs. Oliveres' car that just happens to play a loop of her son's voice over the car radio.

"That's creepy and..cruel." she says taking it from her dad.

"The best part. It was paid for by the Neptune school district. You mind having a little chat with the man."

"No problem. I'll even bring this to my tech support." she says with a smile.

* * *

She talks to Clemmons who refers her to Principal Moorehead.

After getting the sense of a run around, she goes for the kill.

"Are you aware that an mp3 player registered to the school was found broadcasting Marcos Oliveres' voice in his mom's car."

Moorehead takes a business card out of his desk and hands it to her. "We know nothing of the sort. If you have any other questions do call our district's lawyers."

Smirking, she takes the card and leaves his office.

* * *

She heads right for computer class, "So if I wanted to is there any way to tell where or when a recording was made?" she asks Mac sitting down next to her. Mac holds out her hand with a smile, and she hands her the mp3. Mac plugs it in and starts the recording.

"I know who this is." Mac says after listening for a few minutes.

"It's Marcos Oliveres." she says looking at her in confusion.

"Maybe but it's also Cap'n Krunk."

"Cap'n Krunk? Wait..from that radio show you wanted me to listen too."

"Yeah. 'Ahoy, Mateys!' Cap'n Krunk and Imitation Crab."

"No one knows who Marcos is but...

"Cap'n Krunk was brutal. If you were on his bad side he'd tear you a new one." Mac says as she heads over to the 'Ahoy, Mateys!' website.

They sit there for a while and listen to some of the past airings.

"It's not all crotch-grabbing scatological man-humour." Mac tries to justify as she downloads a few episodes.

"What's with this gap?" she asks pointing to the screen.

"Oh, they went on a little sabbatical. However, when they returned Cap'n Krunk was gone. Imitation Crab by himself is too much even for me to take."

"Is there any way we can track the signal?" she asks as Mac looks at her in shock. "I listen when you talk..stop looking at me like that."

Mac laughs, "I would love to play Q to your Bond but need cash. Gonna need a few things from Radio Shack."

She nods and Mac hands over the mp3.

"Listen and love, Bond."

She plugs in her headphones and pushes play.

**And here it comes, Imitation Crab. ~ Cap**

**Arrr!~Crab**

**The winner of this week's cock** **of the walk countdown. ~Cap**

**Don't leave 'em hanging, Cap'n. ~Crab**

**It's Logan Echolls!~Crap**

She sits at a table and watches Logan with a group of 09ers.

**That's forty weeks running. Rosemary's baby: the teen years. If I was his mother, I'd kill myself too. ~Cap**

She listens as Marcos bagged on everyone. No one was safe.

_What if someone figured out that Cap'n Krunk was Marcos...but what would harassing his parents gain?_

Standing she heads to her locker, taking the earbuds out.

"So, any news on my witness?" Logan asks catching up to her.

"Think it's obvious. He's owned by the Fighting Fitzpatricks." she says getting to her locker.

"So, as far as I know I've done nothing to piss off the Irish."

"I'm working it, okay?" she says grabbing her books.

"Help me, Mars-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Logan calls after her after she slams her locker closed.

_Dire need for boyfriend...who is currently not to be found...Maybe he'll have some luck talking to his boys cause I know he's going to._

* * *

She and Mac, on different streets, start looking for the signal.

* * *

He stands in the middle of his boys, who are standing around him.

"Now..I'm checkin'. Am I still in charge here?"

The boys look at each other and nod.

"That's funny, since a few days ago, some 09er comes up to me and wants to know where the coke he ordered is. Tells me some brown-skinned biker sold to him. And last night, I find out that the witness that came forward about Echolls was bought and paid for by the Fitzpatricks." He notices how all 'his' boys glance nervously at each other. "So this gets me wondering..did things change while I wasn't looking? Are we in business with those meat-heads and no one deemed it necessary to tell me? Is someone here trying to make extra cash?"

Not one of them answer him. He glares at each of them. "Get out of here." he snarls and the boys disperse quickly, all but Thumper.

"You really think one of us are workin' for those micks?" Thumper asks.

"The night Felix got killed. Did you see the guy that called the cops?" he asks.

"Nay."

"You were there."

"No...I wasn't." Thumper tells him.

"You told me that **you** saw it happen." he growls out.

"Hector and Bootsy were there. We needed as many guys as possible. One rich boy against two." Thumper said shrugging his shoulders.

"I am getting to the bottom of this one way or another." he snarls out.

* * *

She is walking on a sidewalk, her detector blinking. She meets with Mac, who sees that the signal is strongest where they are standing.

"It has to be coming from the house behind us." Mac states.

They decide to move in for the kill and go over to the front entrance. She knocks on the door and any plan she had goes out the window when Clemmons opens the door.

"Girls."

"Could we use your phone, our cells have died and my car is refusing to start." she says quickly.

Clemmons does not appear to be too impressed and begins closing the door on them when she shouts, "We're here to see Vincent."

Clemmons reacts positively.

"I told you that an excuse wasn't going to work." she says looking at Mac.

"Wait, what..no,no. noooo" Mac says looking from her to Clemmons.

"She has been going on and on about him." she says.

"Come in." he says moving out of the way so that they can come in.

He leads them to Vincents room. Behind his back, Mac slaps at her for the story and she pleads forgiveness as they walk. At the door, Clemmons knocks and calls out to his son. After a second knock Vincent answers that this is his private basement time. Both of them are desperately trying to keep a straight face.

Smiling at Mac, Clemmons calls out "Veronica Mars and a friend have come to visit you."

"Tell them that I'm not here." Vincent calls out.

"They are standing right here son."

Frustrated, Vincent opens the door a little, only to be pushed aside by her once Clemmons is out of view.

"What are you doing here?" he demands to know.

"Well... we came to bust a move but seems like the song is almost over." she says taking a small radio out of her pocket.

"You know, this is a bad time. I was painting my models and everything will be ruined if I let the paint dry."

"Hmmm, wonder why they haven't started a new song." she says looking at her radio.

"Get out. Now." he demands.

"Why so crabby?" she says with a smirk.

Vincent is momentarily distracted and is unable to prevent Mac from moving past him into the rear end of the room.

"Your blanket is blinking." Mac snarks. She moves froward and moves the blanket to reveal a small radio station. Busted, he turns off the red light.

"So does your dad know that you rag on his school is your spare time?" she snarks.

"My dad has no idea about his okay. What do you want?"

"Why did Marcos quit the show before he died?"

"He went away to some camp and when he came back he just up and quit. He completely changed."

* * *

She pretends to put some files away while eavesdropping on her dad explaining Marcos's secret hobby to his father. Who actually seems rather proud that his shy son has found something as enterprising as a radio show to express himself.

"It's possible that he offend the wrong person." her dad tells him.

"I doubt a student would take revege on grieving parents." he replies.

"Veronica mentioned that numerous people said that Marcos changed after going away to summer camp. Is it possible that something happened there with someone?"

Carlos brushes him off by stating that this isn't kids' stuff and has nothing to do with summer camp. He again insists that the school district caused the situation to prevent him and his wife from continuing their lawsuit.

They leave the office and her dad tells her that he will be doing a stakeout at the Oliveres' house while they are out. They instant, the door closes behind them she goes into her dad office for the file to find their credit card bill.

She finds out the name of the camp, SelfQuest, and researches it on the net.

She finds the website of a organisation claiming to be able to re-program teenagers who are struggling with their sexual identity.

_Marcos was gay._

* * *

He sits on his bike waiting, when his phone starts ringing.

"It done?" he asks answering.

"Oh, it's just begun, Weevs. You have no clue what you have just gotten yourself into." Logan says before hanging up.

* * *

She sits down at Vincent's table.

"So..what can you tell me about Camp SelfQuest?" she asks.

"Could you graduate already." he snarks.

She smirks at him, waiting.

"Never heard of it." he says hoping that will get her to leave.

"Its the deprogramming camp that Marcos' parents sent him to. To help him un-gay."

"Marcos wasn't gay."

"You sure about that."

"He talked about chicks all the time. He was a playboy-loving booty hound not some..."

"Don't finish that sentence if you want to live." she says with a smile that promises retribution.

"Marcos talked about girls all the time. He nearly got his ass handed to him for it once." he says swallowing hard.

"By the girl?"

"No. Her jealous boyfriend."

"Okay." she says stealing a fry before she leaves.

* * *

She sends out a email to the one that she had received about Marcos.

It's about free concert tickets for doing a Radio Broadcast Alliance survey in concert promoting and whoever is interested should call a number to one of her burner cells immediately.

* * *

She sits in class writing with one hand and holding her cell phone in the other when it rings.

She answers it, pretending to be the Radio Broadcast Alliance, but the person on the other end has hung up immediately.

She looks at her phone knowingly.

* * *

She walks down the sidewalk, looking at houses. With Mac's help she was able to reverse phone book the call and now knew where Marcos admirer lives. She knocks on the door and a girl answers. She's about to ask her about the email when the girl leans out the door to call to her brother, "Ryan did you remember my milkshake?" who just pulled in the driveway.

Ryan notices her and quickly walks to hand his sister the food.

"We can talk later." he mentions to her.

"We will talk now." she says pulling him to his car as his sister disappears into the house.

They sit on the hood of his car.

"I use to listen to Ahoy Mateys religiously but didn't know Marcos. I keep track of the equipment for journalism. Butters and Marcos checked out a reverb mic. I heard it used on the show and knew it was them. I told them that I was a fan. That was the start of a beautiful friendship."

"Were the two of you a couple?"

"I was in love with him and am completely gay but he just wanted to be friends. He was on the fence about what he was. I pushed and I was giving him a back rub when his parents caught us. Next thing I know he's off to Camp 'Homophobe'."

"Than he died."

"After being forced to do normal teenage boy things. Like going on a field trip for baseball. He was trying to win back his parents approval. That's why he died."

"They lost their son. What you were doing hurt them."

"They were meant to."

She walks away leaving Ryan still sitting on the hood of his car.


	6. Chapter 6

"Welcome to parenthood." Ms. Hauser says showing the class a realistic doll.

She is currently sitting by herself thanks to the odd number of students, she exchanges a smile with Meg, who is currently living with Duncan at the Grande while Lamb looks into everything that her dad had given him.

_Who knew that Lamb actually had a heart. Hell must have frozen over or something._

"For the next five days, you.. moms and dads will be caring for your very own Baby Think-It-Over."

She wrinkles her nose when Ms. Hauser holds the baby by its ankle and lets it hang in the air. The sound of a crying baby fills the room.

"Some tips. Your babies are equipped with very sophisticated sensors. They will know when they want to be held, fed..." she goes through everything about the care of the 'baby'. "Most important, they have a good memory. So if you want to pass this class...make sure to give junior some TLC." She tells them while giving the 'baby' a bottle and burping it. "Find a partner and pick a baby."

She waits until everyone has partnered up before going up by herself. She would have teamed up with Hector but he was already partnered up with Carmen.

"Single motherhood, Ms. Mars." Ms. Hauser asks watching as she collects the last baby, which she doesn't want to admit reminds her a little of Ophelia but lighter.

"At least this way, I know I'm the only one screwing the kid up." she jokes. She's surprised to see a small smile on her teacher's face. She collects everything that she's going to need and waits for class to end.

* * *

"Ms. Mars, come with me." Clemmons says when she exits her last class of the day.

She follows him to his office.

"Your keys, please." he says holding out his hand the instant they walk in.

She places the baby, in the carrier that Ms. Hauser provided everyone, down on the floor and pulls her keys out of her purse.

"All of them." he says not moving his hand.

Swallowing, she takes out another key ring and watches as Clemmons tries them on his door. Of course he gets to the one key unlocks the door.

"I have a really funny story..." she tries to start.

"Don't bother. The district's new security system keeps track of all after-hour visits. This means you will be suspended."

"Nonono...if you suspend me, I won't..."

"Be eligible for the Kane Scholarship..Hmmm, maybe I could be inclined to let you off with detention...This time."

"I'll take whatever you got." she says sighing.

"Hmmm, follow me.. I have a little project for you." Clemmons says with a smirk, leading her out of the office, she makes sure to grab her bag and the baby carrier.

**"Some other exciting news. Open auditions for 'Hamlet' will be open all week.~** Moorehead announces as they pass him **~I am proud to announce that this year's special celebrity director will be none other than Miss Trina Echolls**

_Oh joy..Trina is in town._

Clemmons leads her into the basement. Which is filled with filing boxes and cabinets.

"The janitor had a little mishap with the dolly last week while moving the permanent records. Your detention is finished when these files find their way, in alphabetical order, to those cabinets."

"Oh..joy. Is magic allowed?" she jokes.

Clemmons smirks and leaves. She places her bag and carrier next to the cabinets and gets to work.

She's on her next to last pile when one folder jumps out at her.

_Lianne Susan Reynolds...mom?_

Slowly she opens it, sitting down on the floor, leaning against one of the cabinets.

_Before mom started throwing them back like a rock star about to go into rehab, she told me that high school is something you had to get through...I think I get what she meant now. I wonder if I would have liked Lianne the teenager. Miss Reynolds...suspended for three days for spreading false and malicious rumors...shared hearing with one Deborah Philipina Drummond..._

"Any relation to one Deborah Philipina Hauser?" she said softly.

"Miss Mars...this is going to take you a extremely long time if you read each file." Clemmons says entering the room.

She quickly gets to her feet, "I was..."

Clemmons just raises an eyebrow at her before turning and leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.

She places her mom's file on top of her bag and goes to take care of the rest of the files. Every so often her eyes stray back to the file.

* * *

He's working on a customers car, thinking the sooner he gets this done the sooner he can head home and clean up before going to see if V wants to rent a movie or something, when the power goes out.

"Hey!" he yells out trying to get the attention of the other guy still there. "Jaun! You tripped the breaker!"

Frustrated at zero response, he all but slams the tools he was using down and heads to the fuse box. He restores power and turns only to have a fist in his face.

_Fuck_

He can feel multiple hands holds him down.

"Heard your lights were out." he hears Logan snark before he feels a kick to the head and everything goes dark.

* * *

"Hey..what happened to you last night? Thought you were coming over after you did some work? Call me." she leaves what is more than like the millionth message on Weevil's voicemail as she sits in the parking lot of school the next morning. She gets out of the car and starts undoing the car seat that her 'baby' is in.

"You know, there's these things called genetics? Well thanks to my mom, your 'grandma', there's a fifty-fifty chance of me becoming an alkie which means you have a little less of chance. Sorry kid." she mutters picking up the baby. She's hoping that getting to school earlier than normal that she'll catch Ms. Hauser to see if she was the same girl that was at the hearing with her.

She catches a break when she sees her walking past.

"Ms. Hauser!? Got a minute?" she calls arranging her stuff to chase after her without dropping anything.

"Ask at your own risk, Miss Mars. I haven't had coffee yet this morning." Ms. Hauser tells her when she catches up.

"You knew my mom? Lianne Reynolds?"

"I remember Lianne. I'm embarrassed I ever listened to her gossip, or repeat it. A lot of people got hurt because of your mother's mouth." she tells her before walking off.

"Dammit." she mutters when the 'baby' starts crying. She surprises herself when she is able to get it to calm down within seconds. She starts heading to the entrance, happy that she has a while before anyone else shows up.

"Well, that explains it." she mutters seeing the sight in front of her. Her boyfriend, duct-taped to the flagpole. Bruises visibly and the fact that he's nearly naked, or is, under the duct-tape is noticeable. "Well now I know why you didn't show up last night." she says coming up to stand next to him.

"Got ambushed. Trust me I would rather have been with you than here." he tells her.

She drops her bag and places the baby on top of it. She reaches into her back pocket and pulls out her switchblade.

"I'm having the strongest feeling of deja-vu. Only it wasn't you I was cutting down." she says with a smirk.

"Enjoy it baby. I've seen that you have been calling me most of the night. Were you worried?" he tries to get her mind off this by nodding his head towards the pile of his clothes, his phone on top.

"You're not going to tell me who did this, are you?" she asks already knowing the answer.

"Let me deal with it, V...please." he says catching her eye.

She nods. _Two days, vato, then it's my turn._

"I am so glad that you're here early today." he says when she finishes cutting him down.

"You staying or heading home?" she asks while he grabs his clothes, duct-tape sticking to his body. He throws on his jeans.

"Home...want to come with, help me remove the hard to reach pieces." he says huskily coming within a breath away from her.

"Tempting...but I got a mystery to figure out." she says kissing him quickly before grabbing her stuff and leaving him standing there. Stopping a few feet away she turns and comes back to him. "Changed my mind. I'll bring you home, maybe stay and help." she says biting her lip with a smile.

"Tell me about this mystery." he says as he wraps an arm around her shoulders and walks to her car.

* * *

"So...something you need to tell me?" he says when they pull out of the parking lot.

"What do you mean?" she asks with a smirk, knowing he is talking about the baby.

"Why do you have a baby that looks like a lighter Ophelia?"

"Health class. Baby think it over." she tells him.

"So, you picked a baby that somewhat could pass as our kid?" he asks staring at her.

She smirks and doesn't answer.

At a stop light, he grabs her hand and entwines their fingers so that for the rest of the car ride they are holding hands.

She pulls to a stop in front of his house.

"You coming in?" he says with a smirk and a nod.

She nods and grabs her stuff. She follows him to his bedroom.

"I'll be out in a few." he says dropping a kiss on her mouth as she sits down. Waiting for him, she gives the baby its bottle when it starts to fuss.

"Is it wrong that you look good like that?" he asks coming into the room with just a towel wrapped around his waist to see her sitting in the middle of his bed, holding a 'baby' while reading.

She smiles and places the baby in its carrier watching as he slips a pair of boxers on underneath the towel. "Get all of it?"

"Luckily...cheap tape was used." he says with a smirk letting the towel drop and grabs a pair of jeans.

She just watches him, "I think I love you." she says it so softly that he's not sure if she said it or he imagined it.

"What?" he asks looking at her.

She swallows and looks down before meeting his eyes, "I said I think I love you."

He drops the shirt that he was about to put on and joins her on the bed, "I think.. I love you, too." he says before covering her mouth with his.

She lays back and he follows.

* * *

She doesn't feel a little guilty heading into school a few hours late.

They might not have done anything that they hadn't already done but it feels like the two of them have gone further than she has ever gone before. She's proud of herself for admitting that she is falling for him.

"Veronica? Where have you been?" Meg asks when they bump into each other.

"Around." she says trying not to let her face get red. "So, this helping?" she asks to the baby that Meg is holding.

"A little. It's getting us ready for the real thing. Luckily, we still have months before the real one gets here." Meg says with a smile as her hand moves to her stomach.

"Any news, parents wise?"

"Still being investigated. My dad is trying to claim that everything was faked by Duncan, due to his medical problems."

"I'm sorry. I have multiple swear words going through my head about your father right now."

"Me, too." Meg says frowning.

They walk the hall together both thinking about different things.

* * *

That afternoon, she walks into Clemmons office.

"So any idea what my mom did her senior year to get suspended?" she asks standing in front of him, holding her baby correctly.

Clemmons glares at her.

"Please, sooner I know the sooner I'll get back to alphabetizing." she justifies.

"I was only a science teacher back then. I wouldn't know. I'm sure there is a report." he tells her trying to wave her off.

"With all the good stuff blacked out. Who else was here at that time?"

"Mrs. Hauser was a student. Mr. Moorehead was the vice principal and Mary Mooney was a student. That's all."

"Who's Mary Mooney?"

"Check the cafe."

* * *

She looks around the cafe and notices a woman clearing the tables.

"Mary Mooney?" she calls out.

The woman ignores her.

"Excuse me?" she says a little louder.

She still doesn't turn around.

"Doesn't matter how loud you go..." some skater calls to her, "She's like deaf or something."

_Okay been a while but I think I might remember the alphabet_

She tapes Mary on the shoulder. Mary turns and looks at her.

"Sorry, did you know a L-I-A-N-N-E R-E-Y-N-O-L-D-S?" she says and spells out slowly.

Mary watches her and shakes her head no.

"Okay." she says softly and turns to walk away.

She's a few feet away when Mary taps her shoulder and starts signing fast.

"Slowly, please."

Mary starts again slower.

"Lianne was a...fiend?"

Mary smiles and nods.

Swallowing hard she nods and walks away.

* * *

Knowing that someone has to know she hits up her next source.

"Principal Moorehead?" she calls out when she finds him walking the hall.

"Miss Mars. I see the Clemmons is failing his job." he mutters.

"Really, what's that?"

"Keeping you away from me." he says still walking.

"You were vice principal here in the eighties, right?" she asks.

"Yes."

"Do you remember suspending my mom for spreading a false and malicious rumor?"

"Who was your mother?"

"Lianne Reynolds."

Moorehead starts laughing, "Yes I remember her. I don't remember the rumor though."

"Oh." she says following him hoping he could tell her a little more about her mom.

"Veronica!" Trina calls out.

She had followed Moorehead right to Trina.

"Take five everyone." Trina calls out. "Alan, how's my favorite principal?"

Moorehead chuckles taking Trina's hands in his.

"Trina, it's good to have you back." he says.

Trina smiles even when another student calls for Moorehead.

"You look amazing." Trina say coming over to her. "How are you?"

"Good, good." she says nervously.

"I've been meaning to call you. Big news. Evan Rachel Wood..she's gonna play you in the movie. There will be a name change but she'll play you."

"Great." she says trying to find a way out of this conversation.

"We'll catch up. Call me." Trina says with a dramatic turn and heads back to the stage.

She quickly escapes.

* * *

_It took a while but after searching mom's yearbook I was able to find an interesting inscription from one Patty Wilson._

Looking around the room of the Hut, she finds who she is looking for.

"Patty?" she asks placing the baby carrier on the floor next to a couch.

"Yes, you must be Veronica. You look so much like your mom." the woman says holding out her hand. She sits down across from her waiting for their drinks to arrive.

"You know we were lap partners. We would just sit in the back of class and gossip. Your mom always had the best gossip. The best ones though were your mom's love life." Patty reminisces.

"Like what?"

"Well... at the time, your mom and Jake Kane were on-again, off-again during the summer by Homecoming they were the IT couple and never gonna break up again. At least that's what Lianne thought."

"What happened?" she asks sitting forward sure this might be part of the reason she was suspended.

"The spiteful little thing that he dated when he wasn't with your mom told him that she was pregnant." Patty says with a huge smile.

"Jake Kane got a girl pregnant?" she was in shock. _And he's mad at Duncan for standing by Meg during her pregnancy._

"Some thought so but your mom was positive that Celeste was lying through her teeth."

"Celeste? Celeste Kane?"

"Well she was Conothan back then. Her family was moving out of the district, I think she just wanted to break Jake and Lianne up for good. She spent the rest of Senior year at Pan..but she was at Neptune for Prom."

"Not knocked up anymore." she says shaking her head.

"Bingo. The baby had magically disappeared."

They talk for a little while longer before Patty needs to leave for work. She slowly heads to her car.

_So mom was dumped because Celeste was pregnant or she said Celeste was pregnant cause she got dumped._

* * *

"Hey." she said walking through the door, holding the baby in its carrier.

"Nearly missed my chili surprise." her dad says with a smile moving away from the stove.

She drops her bag next to the couch and sits down, taking the baby out of the carrier and grabs a bottle to feed it before it even starts to cry.

He looks over and sees that she is deep in thought.

"Something on your mind?" he asks.

"Could I ask you something about mom?"

"Sure." he says sitting on one of the stools.

"When you first met mom, she was cool right?"

"She married me didn't she?" he tries to joke. "Why?"

"Ummm..I found out that Mom was suspended during her senior year for more than likely spreading a rumor that Celeste Kane was knocked up." she tells him.

"I see."

"Is there any way to find out if she was telling the truth?" she asks suddenly hopeful.

"Veronica..."

"I just need to know that she wasn't like all those girls that I hate." she mumbles.

"Veronica, who she was in high school shouldn't matter. She loved you and you loved her." he tells her.

* * *

She sits with Meg and Mac in the journalism classroom.

"How did you get out of this?" she asks Mac since she doesn't have a baby.

"Talent." Mac says with a grin. Meg's baby starts crying and she can tell that Meg looks she is about to burst into tears herself.

"Meg?" she asks as Meg picks up the baby and starts digging through her bag only for it to fall on the floor.

"I'm sorry..." waving her hand in front of her, she and Mac start picking everything up. "The court wants me to go to counseling with the rest of my family."

"What?!" she and Mac exclaim.

Meg gets out of saying anything else when people start running past the door.

"FIGHT!" someone screams.

"ECHOLLS AND WEEVIL ARE KILLING EACH OTHER!" another yells as they go past.

"Watch my kid!" she yells at Mac before tearing out of the room.

Meg smiles, "Is it bad that I'm thankful her boyfriend and ex got into it at this moment."

"That might have distracted her but you still have me to deal with." Mac says.

"I didn't even mean to say a thing." Meg says grabbing her stuff and leaves the room quickly, going in the opposite direction of the crowd.

* * *

He slams open the door to the bathroom, smirking when he sees that Logan is there. He makes sure to put the door stopper under the door and does a quick check of the stalls.

"So any chaffing from removing all that tape." Logan says with a smirk.

"Give me one reason why I should let you live after that play." he snarls.

Logan glares at him, "Let's see..you blasted a shotgun through my car window while I... and Veronica were inside."

"That wasn't me." he starts.

"You torched my house and had some of your crew play Russian roulette with my hand. According to my math, you still owe me."

"I thought you killed Felix!" he yells.

"Well, I didn't."

He scoffs, "Yeah, I know that know."

"Where's my apology?" Logan snarks.

"Keep waiting, but now we have something in common.."

"You mean besides locking lips with certain blondes."

"Let's leave V out of this."

"I can if she let's you."

He smirks for a moment, "Good point.. we have to find out who killed Felix."

"So what now? I get to ride shotgun?" Logan snarks.

Rubbing a hand over his face to keep from smacking him, "Maybe. The thing is I can't let you leave this room lookin' the way you did when you walked in. I really don't want to be relying on my woman for a ride."

"She actually lets you call her that." Logan mutters before looking at him. "I'm not going to stand here and take it."

"Wouldn't be much fun if you did." he says smirking.

"Alright, so who's gonna throw the first..."

He doesn't even let him finish the sentence before he punches him in the face, sending him backwards. He keeps punching until he has Logan backed against the wall.

Logan grabs something and hits him in the head with it.

He falls back and it gives Logan time to right himself. Pissed, he rams Logan into the wall, punching him in the ribs.

Logan grabs a hold of his jacket and runs him into the opposite wall. Unfortunately, Logan gets in a couple of good punches.

Somehow he ends up on the floor and Echolls gets a few good kicks into his ribs. He grabs a hold of the leg not kicking him and brings him down to his level.

They roll on the floor, both still throwing body punches.

Over the roar of blood rushing to his ears, he can hear Clemmons at the door.

Somehow Clemmons forces the door open, he and some security guards burst in.

After nearly being hit a few times they are able to separate the two of them.

"Okay boys..break it up." Clemmons says as the guards force them to their feet. "Let's go."

Clemmons turns and the guards follow, each with good holds on the them.

* * *

She gets there just as Clemmons and two guards pass, each holding one of the guys.

She can tell that Weevil got in more hits than Logan.

"Break it up people. Move along." Clemmons says as he goes. "You wouldn't know anything about this now would you, Veronica?" he asks when he notices her.

She doesn't say a word just notices that neither guy will look at her.

_I'm going to kill both of them and no one will ever find the bodies._

* * *

_Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, torturing myself for journalism plus it gets me away from those files._

She adjusts the camera settings and takes a photo of the actor playing Hamlet.

At the moment, his voice just sounds like white noise since she has yet to talk to Weevil since seeing him and Logan being led away. She swears if he is ignoring her texts on purpose there will be hell to pay.

Her 'baby' chooses, right in the middle of Hamlet's monologue, to start crying.

"Sorry…" she says with a slight grin, going over to the baby and giving it a bottle. She sits and watches Trinia try to teach the guy how to say his lines with better emotion. Unfortunately, she steps off the stage backwards, falling and hitting her head on the floor.

"Is she okay?" numerous students ask as they all rush over to her.

"Get the nurse!" someone yells as she reaches Trinia.

* * *

She sits at the desk, staring at her phone.

"What are you doing?" her dad asks when he enters the office.

"Seeing if my powers have finally come in. I'm telling my boyfriend to call me with my mind. Nope still no powers."

"Problem?" he asks trying not to look happy.

"Just him and Logan getting into it once again and suddenly my texts get ignored."

"Well, I have something that might get your mind off boy trouble. There wasn't a baby born under the last name of Kane or Conothan in 1980."

She scoffs, "So Celeste lied. Why am I not surprised?" she mutters.

"Or she had an abortion." he says.

"Thanks for looking." she says leaning her head back.

"Why is this so important to you?"

"I just want to know that mom wasn't one of them."

"Them who?"

"One of those girls that makes everyone else's high school experience a living hell."

"Okay just wanted to be sure before I showed you this." he says pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to her. "A baby Jane Doe showed up at Balboa County Hospital on May eighth, nineteen eighty."

"Showed up?" she asks taking the paper.

"Yeah, little girl was found in the girl's bathroom during Neptune High's Prom."

"Okay, this takes my mind off boyfriend troubles." she says turning to her computer to see what else she can find out about the 'Prom baby'.

Her dad smiles and enters his office to let her work.

* * *

After some searching, she finds one of the foster parents that had taken in the 'Prom baby'.

"Hi, Mrs. Mahnovski?" she asks hopeful that she got the right person.

"Yes." the woman on the other end of the line says.

She gives the woman a little song and is able to get her to talk to her.

"I see from our records that you and your husband have taken in a number of children over the years."

"Yes we have." she could hear the pride in the woman's voice.

"I was wondering if you could remember a baby girl that was in your care for a short time in the early eighties? She was found…."

"In the high school. I could never forget her. She was the 'Prom baby'." the woman says with a slight laugh.

"I see. Well my clients think that she might be their daughter."

"My goodness…."

"They don't want a lot of publicity but they are quite wealthy and would like to take care of her financially. Would you be able to point me in the right direction….?" she leaves the question open.

"I doubt that she would need their money." she says laughing.

"Really?"

"Yes, she was placed into a wealthy home...however they have had some bad karma this past year. What with her mother committing suicide and father being placed in jail."

_You have got to be kidding me….._

* * *

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of talking to your voicemail….call me." she says leaving Weevil another message as she paces in front of the hospital, debating what to do.

_Forget it..my conscious isn't answering._

She turns and enters the hospital, going right to Trina's room.

"Hey Trina." she says entering the room. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. Just a little exhaustion." Trina says brushing it off.

"Okay...I came in here to pretend to do a scene and record it so I could send it out to guilt an admission...but I can't do it. I'm not that person. Trina, you were left in a bathroom at Neptune during prom twenty five years ago."

Trina rolls her eyes and smiles, "Very funny, Veronica. Who put you up to this?"

"I'm not joking. You were found on Prom night in a girl's bathroom at Neptune."

"This isn't funny." Trina says.

"I know." she says.

"So my mom...was what? One of those trashy sluts that dumped me in a garbage can so she could go party?"

"No...I'm kinda sure that your mom is Celeste Kane."

Trina's frown suddenly turns into a smile. "You should have started with that. Now what were you going to have me do?" she asks.

"I was going to record you with a fake audition tape saying that you are sick and send it off to the tabloids. Try to shame her into admitting it." she says shrugging.

"Alright, start recording." Trina says with a grin. "If we get it done fast enough I can send it to **'Entertainment News'**."

"Oh...okay." she says pulling the script out of her bag and hands it to Trina.

* * *

_A wonderful night of no response from the boyfriend._

She growls softly as she heads towards the drama room where she knows that Trina is practicing, her 'daughter' in a arm sling and a stack of magazines in her hand.

"Take five everyone." Trina calls out when she enters the room and quickly makes her way over. Trina takes the magazines from her, giggling as she reads the headlines.

She feels someone tapping on her shoulder and turns to find Mary Mooney signing quickly.

"I'm not that good..could you go slower." she says.

"Oh it's you. She was always nice to me when I was her. Use to sneak me an extra slice of cake." Trina says watching.

Mary signs slowly slightly but clearly emotional as tears start to form in her eyes.

"Help?" she says slowly understand the words that she is signing.

Mary nods looking at Trina hopeful.

"Oh.." Trina laughs softly. "It's a student production. No outside help allowed."

Mary shakes her head 'no' and makes the motions of a pregnant belly, points at Trina then pats her chest.

"What...what is she saying?" Trina asks becoming upset.

Mary continues signing.

"Veronica?" Trina breathes.

"She wants to give you...she's your mom." she says.

Mary, tears running down her face, wraps her arms around Trina.

Trina doesn't respond for a moment but starts crying herself and returns the hug.

* * *

_**I'm sorry I'm being an ass….we'll talk soon. I have some stuff that I need to figure out.** _

_**E.** _

She looks at the two sentence text and sighs. Shaking her head, she sits up when Mary sits down next to her. She opens her laptop and brings up **WORD**.

"Trina is your daughter?" she types as she speaks.

Mary pats her chest and nods.

"So Trina was the Prom baby?"

Mary nods again.

"How did my mom hurt you?"

Mary shakes her head and types. "She was my friend."

Oh...Friend not fiend. What a difference one letter makes.

"Lianne could sign. She would sit with me most of the time. She was the sweetest and coolest girl in school….and she was my friend."

* * *

"So..can I ask what got you into this? I know it wasn't to help me." Trina asks as they walk to her car during lunch.

"Twenty-five years ago, Mary told my mom that she was involved with someone on the staff. Mom made the mistake of asking one of her friend's for advice. Who spread it around the entire school and they were called into the principal's' office."

"Did that make mystery dad lose his job?" Trina asks.

"Mom recanted...claimed that she made the whole thing up because Mary begged her not to tell."

"Your mom protected the guy?" she asks shocked.

"No, your mom was pregnant with you and scared. She protected Mary."

"Who dumped me at prom?" Trina says with slight venom in her tone.

"No." she says stopping. "She left you on your father's doorstep. He was the one that dumped you at prom knowing it would be assumed you belonged to a student.

"What happened to him?" Trina asked.

She humps and smirks at Trina. "He moved up."

Trina looks at her confused.

"Went from vice principal to principal." she tells her.

Trina's eyes go wide in confusion and slowly turns to a glare as understanding hits her. She watches as Trina whirls around and stalks back to the building.

* * *

**Do you need help?**

**V.**

**Not yet baby.**

**E.**

**Okay….no more of this disappearing act.**

**V.**

"Sorry…" Weevil says as he stands in the doorway of the office.

She looks up at him, torn between kissing and strangling him.

"You going to tell me what's going on?" she asks slowly standing up as he enters the office.

"Soon." he tells her as they sit down on the couch.

"For us to work….you ignoring…" she starts shockingly uneasy.

"I know." he says brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Does whatever you are dealing with have anything to do with getting into a fight with Logan?" she asks trying not to lean into him.

He laughs, "Somewhat."

She sighs and breaks down leaning into him as he wraps an arm around her waist.

"You mad?" he asks softly.

"Slightly...but you swear? No more disappearing boyfriend?" she asks sitting up and looking at him.

"I was in hell. I am here and accounted for. No more disappearing act." he promises moving a stray hair out of her face.

He leans in to kiss her as her dad walks in.

"None of that. This is a place of business." he says with a slight smile on his face that he quickly hides.

She rolls her eyes and leans against Weevil.

"Either of you eat yet?" he asks placing his stuff on the desk.

"You know..it's interesting that you ask that." she says slowly standing and heading into the small kitchen. "I was looking for a snack and found this." she pulls a rat, in a plastic bag out of the freezer.

"Shit." Keith mutters under his breath.

"Care to explain?" she asks with a smirk.

"I found it on the bus." he tells the two of them.

Weevil sits up straighter, suddenly worried.

"You checked the bus?" she asks placing the bag back into the freezer and sitting back down next to Weevil.

Her dad nods, "It was duct-taped under one of the seats."

"Was it a message to her or someone else?" Weevil asks pulling her closer.

"I don't know...I honestly don't know. You were right kiddo. I should've won that election and taken over this case." he says reaching out and holding her hand.

* * *

She's happy that her dad let Weevil stay with her all night, even if they were on the couch. She was still uneasy about the rat and what it meant but having both her dad and boyfriend had helped.

It was driving her crazy not to bug him about what was going on but she knew that if he needed help he would ask her.

Smirking, she entered Clemmons office during her free period.

"You sneaky fox." she says to him. Clemmons doesn't even look up from his work.

"Your detention is over Miss Mars. Unless there was something else you wanted to atone for?"

"Figuring out that I had a key to your office, now that was clever. You had to figure out a way to stick me in detention. That way, you could be sure I would find my way into my mom's permanent file." she says still smirking at him.

"I have no idea what you talking about." Clemmons said leaning back in his chair to look at her.

"You read Machiavelli this summer, didn't you?" she asks with a laugh.

He just looks at her, not revealing anything. "A very imaginative theory, Veronica. But if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of paperwork." he says looking back down at his paperwork.

"Badass." she whispers with a smile and leaves.

* * *

She's almost at the computer room when her phone starts going off.

Adjusting so that she still has a good hold on the baby, she pulls it out of her pocket.

"Hello?" she asks not recognizing the number.

"Miss Mars, this is the Neptune Memorial Hospital regarding Abel Koontz's belongings?"

"Yes?"

"Mr. Koontz has you listed as his emergency contact and seeing how he has no living relatives, we need to know what to do with his personal effects."

"I'll pick them up today after school." she says softly as she feels an arm wrap around her shoulders.

She smiles at Weevil as she leans into him.

"We'll see you then." the woman says before hanging up.

"Anything good?" he asks.

"Not really... That was the hospital. I was listed as Koontz emergency contact..so I get his stuff." she says softly.

"Want me to go with you after school?" he asks.

"Yeah.." she says leaning into him for a few moments before heading into class.

* * *

"This seems wrong." she says looking at the box that Weevil was holding.

"I get what you mean." he says.

All of Abel Koontz belongs were in one small cardboard box.

"VERONICA!" a voice screams out from behind them. They turn to see Duncan running towards them.

"Duncan?" she says confused.

"I need your help. They're trying to get rid of the baby." he says scared out of his mind.


End file.
